New Delhi: Woman weightlifters Pratima Kumari, Sanamacha Chanu, S Sunaina and coach Pal Singh Sandhu have been banned for life, Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi announced in New Delhi today (Sep 29, 2004).

Pratima failed a pre-Olympic Games drug test while Chanu tested positive for a banned diuretic in Athens last month.

Sunaina tested positive at the Asian Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in April this year.

Sandhu, along with foreign coach Leonid Taranenko of Belarus, was sacked by the Sports Ministry immediately after the Athens fiasco.

The Indian Weightlifting Federation has also been temporarily banned by the sport's world governing body.