In the past Ukrainia’s Yuliya Yelistratova, along with Russia’s Igor Polyanskiy and Vladimir Turbayevskiy were suspended for positive doping tests. Now Russian Alexander Bryukhankov has also tested positive for using EPO. He tested positive after the European Triathlon Championships in Kitzbühel. Pending a possible B-sample, World Triathlon will not make any further statements for the time being, but insiders have been talking about doping rumors surrounding Bryukhankov and the Polyanskiy brothers for over a decade.
On Twitter yesterday, triathlon coach Paulo Sousa expressed that he would not be surprised if Dmitry Polyanskiy – Igor’s brother – would be the next athlete in this doping story. He added that, according to many, the doping practices had been known for years and that these athletes are only caught in the latter days of their careers, so it has less impact on today’s results, but in the past – in their prime years – they would not infrequently have kept “clean” athletes from a medal.
A few days ago, Turbayevskiy was suspended by World Triathlon due to EPO. His results from 2014 to 2017 as well as 2019 to 2021 have since been removed. In 2014, abnormal values in his biological passport were detected twice. After new abnormal values were found in 2021, he is now permanently suspended.
