Life bans for India weightlifters

Kumari has blamed her coaches

Indian sport officials have handed out life bans to three women weightlifters after they failed dope tests during international competitions.

Two of the lifters, Pratima Kumari and Sanamacha Chanu, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the Athens Olympics.

The third, S Sunaina, tested positive at the Asian weightlifting championships in April.

Their coach, Pal Singh Sandhu, has also received a life ban.

Sports officials said India would stay out of international weightlifting competitions for a year.

"It has brought national disgrace and so the weightlifting federation... took this decision," Suresh Kalmadi, president of the Indian Olympic Association, said.

Following the Athens positive dope test result, India sacked Pal Singh Sandhu and his colleague Leonid Taranenko of Belarus.

Coach blamed

The decision to stay out of international competition for a year means India avoids paying a $50,000 fine set by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Chanu has tested positive in the past

Kumari tested positive before the beginning of the Games, while 27-year-old Chanu failed a test after her event in the 53kg category, where she finished fourth.

Chanu, a former Asian champion, has been suspended for testing positive in the past.

But Kumari blamed her coaches for her positive test, alleging that she had been given injections which could have contained banned substances.

The weightlifters trained in Minsk, Belarus in the run-up to the Olympics.

This is not the first time that Indian weightlifters have tested positive for drugs.

Krishnan Madasamy failed a dope test at the Commonwealth Games in 2002.

In 1999, another woman weightlifter, Kunjarani Devi, failed a drug test at an Asian Championship for which she served a six month ban.

The weightlifting disgrace capped an embarrassing Olympics for India which finished with one silver medal.