Coaches being made soft targets: Sandhu

Sacked weightlifting coach Pal Singh Sandhu alleged that he was being made a target in the doping scandal.

Sacked national weightlifting coach Pal Singh Sandhu on Saturday alleged that coaches were being made "soft targets" in the doping scandal but added that he was ready to face any punishment if found guilty.

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"The coaches are being made the soft targets. They are always targetted by the officials and the media," Sandhu said after retuning from Athens on Saturday morning.

"I am ready to go to gallows, if inquiry committees set up by the Indian Olympic Association and the Indian Weightlifting Federation find me guilty," Sandhu said.

The former coach said that the government did not even bother to wait for coaches to return home and listen to their version.

"They (government) didn't even take our views before taking such severe action. We had gone to Athens under IOA. We did not go to any fair.

"They think we ignored the lifters or played with our country's image. But they should know that IOA had set up a committee under KP Singh Deo, Chairman of the Sports Commission of IOA, then and there which is still to complete its probe", said the Dronacharya awardee coach.

Sandhu alongwith Belarussian coach Leonid Taranenko got the axe from the government last week after two Indian women lifters -- Pratima Kumari (63kg) and Sanamacha Chanu (53kg) tested positive in the dope tests at Athens.

Reacting to Pratima's outburst against him and Taranenko, Sandhu claimed "I have not given my lifters a pill even for headache."