After Dmitriy Muserskiy and Alexander Butko, another Olympic champion from London received a positive result of the old doping test. The sample for which he was sentenced was taken in 2013. As Alexander Yaremenko, General Secretary of the All-Russian Volleyball Federation (VVF), stated that the 2012 Olympic champion and sport director of Belogorie Dmitriy Ilinikh is suspended for two years for violating anti-doping rules.
Ilinykh ended his playing career in October 2021, and the suspension comes while he was the sport director of Belogorie. During the suspension, he cannot perform any sports functions, which means that he has already been removed from his position at the Russian powerhouse from Belgorod.
As Russian BO Sport reports, the same banned substance found in Ilinykh sample from 2013 was also found in Muserskiy case – methylhexanamine. Unlike his colleagues, Ilinykh did not settle with the International Volleyball Federation and did not fully admit his guilt, so he received the most severe punishment: disqualification and forfeiture of all titles from May 11, 2013 to May 10, 2015. AS Belogorie general director Sergey Tetyukhin told to Russian BO Sport, Ilinykh intends to challenge this decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne.
During his career Ilinykh successfully defended the colors of “Zbornaya“ knowing that he has won the 2012 London Olympics, the CEV European Championship once (2013), FIVB World League twice (2011, 2013), and FIVB World Cup once (2011). In youth categories, Ilinykh was named MVP of the 2006 CEV U21 European Championship. On a club level, he won the FIVB Club World Championship once (2014), CEV Champions League once (2014), Russian Championship twice (2005, 2013), Russian Cup three times (2005, 2013, 2014), and Russian Super Cup twice (2014, 2015) – all with Belogorie Belgorod.
Since Ilinykh is deprived of all sport results achieved from May 11, 2013 to May 10, 2015 – gold medals from the 2013 European Championship, 2013 FIVB World League, 2014 FIVB World Club Championship, CEV Champions League, Kazan Universiade, Russian Cup 2013, Russian Championship 2013 and Supercup 2013, 2014 are not treated as his achievements any more.
