The world of triathlon was shaken by two cases of dope!

Barely two weeks after the Olympic meeting, the world’s best athletes (anyway, some…) meet on Friday and Saturday, in Montreal, for the third round of the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS), including the apotheosis. For the next weekend, in Edmonton, and still in Canada. The format promises to be impressive with series and finals over very short distances (300m swim, 7km bike, 2km walk), similar to those in the mixed relay, also in the program on Sunday.

Three Belgians appear at the start, on the men’s side, Martin van Riel (fourth in the Tokyo Olympics) and Jelle Janes, as well as on the women’s side, Hahn de Wit. Neither Claire Michel nor Valerie Barthelemy, both physically and mentally, characterize their performances in Japan. So it is logically at rest.

But, far from the competition, with the revenge of French Vincent Lewis and the ambitious New Zealander Hayden Wild as well as Olympic champion Flora Duffy (Bermuda), the triathlon world has been shaken by two doping cases that our compatriot Martin van Riel himself fails to sharply stigmatize on social networks, arguably out loud what a whisper to many.

“First, Elistratova. Now Polyansky. Everyone knows and we are still waiting for many years to catch them. He doesn’t give much confidence in the system, but is happy to see him go.”

What is it about? The World Triathlon Federation announced this week that a sample taken from Russian Igor Polyanskiy gave an abnormal EPO test result. The sample was collected by the World Triathlon during out-of-competition doping control on July 21, 2021, in Vladivostok. But the result was reported to the dead body on August 5 by the certified lab, allowing Polyanski to make it to the Tokyo Olympics, where he finished 43rd, 7’03 behind winner Christian Blumenfelt.

Reaction from the World Triathlon Championships:The procedure is in progress and the athlete has the right to request a B-sample analysis and possibly appeal Suspension before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS). “

Another case, the case of Ukrainian Yulia Elistratva, who took her sample on July 23 in Tokyo, also revealed an abnormal analysis result of the patent office. Not the first this year! On June 5, at her home in Dnipro, Yelistratva had already tested positive for the competition, which led to her temporary suspension from July 25, as the Ukrainian was banned from participating in the Games. Comment the race player appealed against to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which (fortunately) rejected it. Before Polyansky?