The club management of the collapsed team believes that doping got into the puck players’ bodies as a result of sabotage.
Wada classified meldonium as a doping substance in 2016. The substance protects the heart from lack of oxygen. PDO
37 players of the Russian Tolpar ice hockey club have been found guilty of doping, reports a Russian website gazeta.ru. Tolpar is the farm club of the KHL club Ufa Salavat Julajev.
All the club’s players were found to have meldonium in the club’s internal doping tests. Meldonium is a heart drug that was banned in sports at the beginning of 2016.
According to the Russian website, most of Tolpar’s players believe that the club’s physical trainer Igor Zagretdinov doped them up through nutritional supplements and vitamins.
The club management, on the other hand, believes that doping got into the hockey players’ bodies as a result of “sabotage”. In their opinion, the banned substances would have been added to the drinking water by someone not part of the team.
At the same time, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) finds the story of Tolpar’s club management unbelievable, because the team already has a history of doping. Last April, seven Tolpar players tested positive for meldonium.