“Genuinely Heartbreaking”: CrossFit Games Vet Ant Haynes Reacts to Three of the Top Four Asia Semifinal Men Failing Drug Tests
As first reported by the Barbell Spin last week, four Semifinals athletes have tested positive for a banned substance this season so far.
Among the names were three of the top four men from the Asia Semifinal, including Russia’s Ivan Kukartsev, the overall winner and CrossFit Games qualifier. The third- and fourth-place finishers, Ilyas Kuliev and Anatolii Borisenko, also from Russia, failed tests as well.
Remind me: On June 26, 2024, CrossFit announced that Kukartsev tested positive for the banned substances GW1516-sulfone, GW1516-sulfoxide, and metabolites of GW501516, in addition to LGD-4033, dihydroxy-LGD-4033, and metabolites of LGD-4033. (You can see a breakdown of the banned drugs on CrossFit’s list here.)
Since the announcement, Ilya Makarov, the fifth-place athlete in the Asia Semifinal, has been backfilled into one of the spots on the Games roster.
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Ant Haynes Rings in
Hong Kong’s Ant Haynes — who tore his UCL (ulnar collateral ligament, a strip of connective tissue in the elbow) during the snatch event at this year’s Asia Semifinals and wasn’t able to finish the event — said the news felt, “genuinely heartbreaking for many reasons.”
- Not only does it take away from the efforts of other athletes who otherwise would have made the podium and qualified for this summer’s Games, Haynes said it also leads to, “sponsors losing faith in the athletes.”
- Further, although Asian athletes come from a wide range of countries, they’re being, “represented terribly by a select few,” he said. “[It’s] bad for Asian CrossFit, as likely the second invite for the Games [fifth place, Ilya Makarov] won’t have a great lead-in and stands a higher chance of not such a great finish at the Games, although I’ll be cheering for him and [Arthur] Semenov,” Haynes added.
Ultimately, Haynes would like to see more of an investment in drug testing to ensure competitions are clean.
- “I know drug testing is expensive and very expansive with how CrossFit is set up. But there has to be an investment in fair play; otherwise, it’ll continue to look like a joke,” he said.
Editor’s Note: Stay tuned later this week for our interview with Haynes, a two-time Games athlete, about his injury at Semifinals and his plans going forward.
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