ATHLETICS chief Philip Ella Juico played it coy yesterday if pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena is out of the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games in May, although he said Obiena was not in the list of the national training pool the local track and field body has sent to the Philippine Sports Commission.
“EJ is not on the national training pool list we submitted to the PSC as we had announced last Jan. 28. We have to discuss this (Obiena’s participation in the SEA Games) among ourselves in the Patafa board,” Juico said in the PSA forum yesterday.
Without Patafa endorsement, Obiena would find it difficult to obtain financial support from the PSC, based on Republic Act 6847, the law that created the government sports agency.
“We (in the Patafa board) have to look at his (Obiena’s) case if he wants to participate in the SEA Games because he has said that he will ask help from others and other people have said that they will try to work for his participation. So let’s see how that works,” Juico said, apparently alluding to Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who has said he would back Obiena’s accreditation for the regional games despite the athlete’s conflict with the Patafa.
Patafa’s position in its row with Obiena was strengthened after World Athletics President Sebastian Coe wrote Juico last Feb. 10 upholding Patafa as the sole authority for the sport in the country while considering its issues with the athlete as an “internal matter.”
Although it was within its right and prerogative to do so, the Patafa has not stopped Obiena from competing and representing the country in WA-sanctioned competitions in Europe. He finished 10th out of 12 entries last week at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Lievin, France.
Obiena, who holds the Asian record of 5.92 meters, was scheduled to compete last night (early morning today in Manila) in the Orlen Copernicus, Cup, a WA Athletics indoor tour gold event, in Torun, Poland.
Juico expressed confidence the athletes set to compete in Vietnam from May 12 to 23 can stand their ground despite all the challenges.
“Most of those who won gold or silver (in 2019) are still around. Most of them are in shape.
Most of them have continued training,” he said, adding he expects the national team to at least duplicate its 11-8-8 (gold-silver-bronze) haul when the country hosted the SEA Games in 2019.
