One of the country's top sprint canoeists has been banned from competition for eight years for spiking a younger rival's drink with an anabolic steroid, causing him to fail a doping test, the Japan Anti-Doping Agency said Tuesday.

The incident took place at the national canoe sprint championships last September in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, where the perpetrator, 32-year-old Yasuhiro Suzuki, and the victim, 25-year-old Seiji Komatsu, were both competing, according to the Japan Canoe Federation.

The two had been considered among the top prospects to represent Japan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and were teammates at last year's canoe sprint world championships in the Czech Republic, where Suzuki finished 24th in the men's K1 5000-meter. Komatsu was a member of the K4 500-meter crew which reached the semifinals.