Australian Josh Amberger (seen above at the Ironman World Championship in 2019) finished second behind Collin Chartier at last year’s Ironman Mont-Tremblant event. Despite Chartier’s claims that he didn’t start taking EPO until last November, Ambeger said that he now knows “it’s indeed a different result.”
“It wasn’t just me and my competitors that were robbed that day,” Amberger said in an Instagram post. “The whole sport was robbed.”
Ironman Mont-Tremblant and PTO US Open champion suspended three years for positive EPO test
“I led the race for seven hours and change before Colin [sic] passed me late in the race,” Amberger continued. “I could have been bitter about not winning, yet I was jubilant. Yet something was amiss. When Colin passed me to take the lead, it was like he was doing the sprint race & I was doing the Ironman. But I bit my tongue, focussing on the positives in my own performance. It was vital to stay in the game for Kona. Afterall, he was a nice & humble guy & probably just worked harder than me for it. But now we know … But now I feel disgusted & cheated in ways hard to explain. I guess the moment I no longer feel like I’m doing triathlon for satisfaction alone is the time that I should step away from the sport.”
Cody Beals, who came third in the race, commented on Amberger’s post:
“Congrats on the W!” Beals wrote. “Dopers take an unquantifiable toll on our sport that goes so far beyond the stolen results and dollars. You were the first person I thought of when this … news broke.”
This article was originally published in Triathlon Magazine by Kevin MacKinnon
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