FILE–The Philippines’ Ernest John Obiena prepares to compete throughout the males’s pole vault occasion at The Diamond League AG Memorial Van Damme athletics assembly at The King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on September 3, 2021. (Picture by JOHN THYS / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — Star pole vaulter EJ Obiena felt that the problems raised by the Philippine Athletics Monitor and Discipline Affiliation (Patafa) head in opposition to him stemmed from animosity tracing again to 2017, all the way down to what he felt have been makes an attempt to sabotage his Olympic bid in 2021.
In the course of the listening to carried out by the Home committee on youth and sports activities improvement on Tuesday concerning the points surrounding Obiena and Patafa, significantly Patafa president Philip Juico, the athlete claimed that there have been occasions earlier than the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held final July to August 2021 that made him really feel like Juico was hampering his bid.
“I couldn’t assist however get that impression that he was intentionally making an attempt to sabotage the nation’s possibilities at an Olympic medal due to an animosity in the direction of me,” Obiena informed lawmakers within the on-line listening to.
The world No. 6 Obiena, who completed eleventh in Tokyo, claimed there was one occasion the place Patafa allegedly didn’t seek the advice of him in selecting who would compose his crew, whereas the company additionally bought his pole vaulting gear wrongly, ensuing within the objects being damaged and ineffective simply weeks earlier than his flight to Tokyo, Japan.
‘Bureaucratic issues’
“We additionally had a problem resulting in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after I wasn’t consulted with the collection of my help crew, I needed to stand my floor and battle for every member of my crew simply to make it possible for the important folks that I would want in Tokyo could be there earlier than the deadline of the submission,” he stated.
“We additionally had bureaucratic issues related to the acquisition of my gear, my vaulting poles that I want to make use of. This resulted in my gear arriving damaged and ineffective, only a week earlier than my flight going to Tokyo. This might have been simply prevented as I’ve knowledgeable Mr. Juico and Patafa a number of months, greater than 5 months earlier than (the) Olympics that I want this gear,” he added.
However apart these, Obiena additionally claimed that he felt Juico was hampering his improvement and progress, because the Patafa govt allegedly allowed two provides — one from a widely known sports activities attire firm — which might have offered him obligatory funding to slide by.
The opposite provide that Obiena received was him being picked by the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) for the Olympic Solidarity scholarships, which he claims was misplaced as a result of Juico didn’t present him the wanted paperwork and really useful one other athlete as a substitute.
However the IOC program, the Olympian stated, was particular to a sure sport.
“After the Olympics, I used to be chosen by the [IOC] as a recipient of the Olympic Solidarity Program, which granted me monetary help to coach for the 2024 Paris Olympic which might have funded me with out inflicting the Philippines a single centavo. However Mr. Juico himself didn’t give me the required NSA endorsement for my paper work, as a substitute, he nominated one other athlete,” Obiena stated.
“The unhappy a part of the entire thing is that this system is athlete-specific, when Mr. Juico didn’t endorse me, the Federation, the game of athletics misplaced that lone spot that the IOC gave,” he added.
However Juico, who was additionally throughout the listening to, stated that he was by no means approached by Obiena and his mom concerning the take care of the sports activities attire firm, as they talked to Patafa’s advertising and marketing and communications director.
“I didn’t even speak to Mr. Obiena about that, he can not even produce any doc that claims I ought to do that, I ought to try this,” Juico stated.
Relating to one of many crew’s members being lower from Obiena’s delegation, Juico defined that he needed to know the members of the crew as a result of as a supervisor, he desires a transparent view of what’s taking place.
“‘The sports activities physician [he was talking about], sports activities psychologist, I needed to satisfy her there as a result of it’s the responsibility of the sports activities psychologist or another member of an athlete’s group to be in shut concord with the administration, with the NSA, and each different member of the crew,” Juico stated.
‘Persist with the difficulty’
“I simply needed to have a 360 diploma view — that could be a administration model or administration methodology, you need to know what’s occurring together with your athlete, in spite of everything, we’re those paying the psychologist, it’s our proper to seek out out, to watch,” he added.
Juico made no point out about Obiena’s gear arriving damaged, or concerning the IOC choice that slipped previous from the athlete.
As an alternative, he urged Obiena’s camp to stay to the difficulty, and simply reply the accusations that he didn’t pay his coach, Vitaly Petrov.
“Di ko alam kung ano ang harassment, ‘pag ba nagtatanong ka harassment na? (I don’t know why it’s being referred to as harassment. Is merely asking a query thought of harassment?)You recognize, that’s simply a part of it, in spite of everything, I’ve to report back to PSC how the cash is getting used,” Juico stated.
“Let’s simply return to the unique (concern), paliwanag niyo na lang ‘yong mga dokumento saka ‘yong mga fund (simply clarify the paperwork and the funding), however we’re open to mediation,” he added.
Patafa is in scorching water for allegedly harassing Obiena, after it ordered the athlete to return 85,000 euros (over P4.8 million pesos) in monetary help after he allegedly didn’t pay Vitaly.
Obiena denied the claims, and Petrov ultimately clarified his assertion that he was being paid correctly by the athlete, and that he solely needed the method to be made quicker as Obiena was making advances on behalf of the federal government.
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