Trimetazidine is a 'metabolic cousin of meldonium’ - Town Square #11
The grand slam champion Iga Swiatek believes her failed drug test was unavoidable even though her agent was well familiar with the perils of anti-doping from the Maria Sharapova meldonium case.
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“An obscure substance used to treat angina, there were trace amounts”, said a co-host on the former US Open champion Andy Roddick’s podcast shortly after news broke that the five-time grand slam winner Iga Swiatek had tested positive for the doping agent trimetazidine.
For some, trimetazidine is anything but an ‘obscure’ substance.
Last February, the Junior Wimbledon finalist Nikola Bartunkova tested positive for trimetazidine. The player, who is based at one of the Czech Republic’s most prestigious tennis clubs, then tested negative before again testing positive for the same substance a fortnight later. Tennis’ anti-doping officials accepted, as they did with Iga Swiatek, that she had taken a contaminated product. Both players failed to disclose on their doping control forms that they had taken the contaminated products in question. They both however provided purchase receipts in a team member’s name.