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Weightlifting coaches dropped
New Delhi - Indian sports authorities fired two weightlifting coaches on Tuesday after a pair of Indian weightlifters were disqualified from the Olympics for testing positive for banned substances.
India's Sports Minister Sunil Dutt terminated the contracts of national weightlifting coach Pal Singh Sandhu and Leonid Taranenko of Belarus, Press Trust of India news agency said.
The sacking came after one of the weightlifters, Pratima Kumari Na, blamed Sandhu over the positive doping test, and said that he had controlled her diet and the drugs she was given for back pain during training.
After being disqualified from the Games, Kumari told television channels on her return to India that Sandhu was in charge of her medication and diet, and yet when she was disqualified he had refused to help her.
Soon after Kumari and another weightlifter, Sanamacha Chanu, were disqualified, the Indian Olympic Association set up a committee to probe the charges of doping against Indian weightlifters.
However, PTI said Dutt had ordered their sacking with immediate effect, even before the committee could submit its report.
The agency, quoting unnamed officials in India's sports ministry, said the ministry had "lost confidence" in the coaches after the doping episode.
Kumari had tested positive in a pre-Olympic doping test by the International Weightlifting Federation.
Chanu was disqualified and suspended when she tested positive for a banned drug after finishing fourth in her competition.
Both weightlifters have since returned to India.
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