Career
Now wishing to concentrate on the K-1, he initially refused to join the senior K-4 crew as the coaches had planned. At the 2001 European championships in Milan he was persuaded to enter the K-4 races, winning his first senior medals – the 500 m and 1000 m bronze. In the K-1 1000m however, he could only finish 17th.
Senior K-1 races were proving harder though and he again failed to reach any major finals in 2002.
Realising he was not yet ready to challenge for senior K-1 medals he instead teamed up with Vadzim Makhneu to compete in K-2 races. The partnership was an instant success.
On their first World Cup outing in Szeged in May 2003 they beat a world-class field including Germans Rauhe and Wieskötter over 500 m. At the 2003 World Championships in Gainesville, United States of America, they claimed the silver medal.
They were disappointed not to do better but in the final a false start by eventual silver-medalists Nathan Baggaley and Clint Robinson went unpunished.
To make matters worse, Makhneu had stopped paddling after just two strokes, waiting in vain for the Australians to be called back by the starter. The Belarusians had to come through from last place to snatch the bronze medal ahead of the Polish duo of Twardowski and Wysocki. In 2005 they took a break from the K-2 (and each other).
Meanwhile, the Belarusian four, with Piatrushenka as the "engine", established themselves as the top K-4 500m crew in the world.
A gold medal at the European Championships in Poznań was followed by victory in the World Championship final in Zagreb. This was Belarus"s first world championship team kayak gold medal since independence.
In June 2015, he competed in the inaugural European Games, for Belarus in canoe sprint, more specifically, Men"s K-2 1000m with Vitaliy Bialko and K-4 1000m with Pavel Miadzvedzeu, Aleh Yurenia, and Vitaliy Bialko. He earned bronze medals in both areas.