Three of the top four men at the Asia Semifinal failed a drug test. Illias Kuliev finished third and tested positive for a metabolite of Drostanolone. Like Kukartsev, Kuliev shared a statement about his drug test on Instagram.
The post, originally in Russian, has been translated to English:
Hello everyone, you’ve already seen that I was slapped. I don’t want to keep quiet, but I also don’t want to make excuses and bullshit, so I’ll cut it short. They found drostanolone, the substance I used is called dymethazine, it is not in the list of prohibited substances in WADA. The supplement was called Super DMZ, by the way it is also not on the WADA website. I bought it in Turkey, a sports drink, God knows when, 90 capsules for two thousand lira. I drank 27 tablets, the rest are still at home. I can share them with anyone who needs them, you won’t be able to perform at such a level anyway. Well, about the doping itself, this is the third year I’ve been tested. I went and knew there would be a test and I was ready for it, so putting something in or drinking it would be the height of stupidity. When the test came back, I spent a couple days analyzing where and what I ate. At first I sinned on the tablets, I like to drink them, but then we found dymethazine directly in the composition of this can. I did not come up with a letter for a fool, wrote the doping agents as everything is, but in the rulebook written in black and white, ignorance does not exempt from responsibility and as a professional athlete must watch what he takes. Let’s see how it ends. It would be cool is the agency agreed to a meeting and reduced the term to at least two years. It’s not the first time I’ve been tested and everything was always ok. Plus, this is far from the strongest drug from those that are usually caught and the amount of metabolites is simply ridiculous. I provided all the receipts for the purchase, dates and proof of the commission we are waiting.
Kuliev has appealed the results and is waiting for CrossFit to respond. The top two men were slated to compete at the 2024 CrossFit Games from the Asia Semifinal. Kukartsev and Arthur Semenov finished in first and second, respectively. However, with Kukartsev, Kuliev and Anatolii Borisenko all testing positive for banned substances, it is unclear whether CrossFit will backfill the Kukartsev’s spot.