SUDDENLY, pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena is singing a different tune.
He provided encouragement on his Facebook page to fellow Tokyo Olympian Kristina Knott, who saw action in the women’s 60-meter run in the just-concluded World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
A 2019 Southeast Asian Games double gold medalist, Knott missed the cut for the semifinals in her world indoor debut, finishing last among eight entries in the second heat in a time 7.39 seconds.
“My teammate Kristina @knottyourchess proudly represented the Philippines in the women’s 60 meters. Whilst she didn’t advance to the semifinals in one of world’s most competitive events, she ran valiantly for our flag. I am proud to call Kristina a teammate and friend and I want to thank her for making our nation proud,” Obiena said.
“SEA Games are next and I am sure Kristina shall defend her Gold MedalS in Hanoi. Like you said this is only the beginning Thank you Kristina!” he exclaimed.
But Obiena’s sentiments about Knott were vastly different when he attended an online hearing of the House and Youth and Sports Committee presided over by Rep. Faustino Dy III in relation to the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship that he claimed was meant for him.
The hearing was conducted in aid of legislation and into the alleged harassment of athletics chief Philip Ella Juico against Obiena, who went to the Philippine Olympic Committee when the Patafa asked him to account for the delayed wages of his Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov.
“After the Olympics, I was selected by the International Olympic Committee as a recipient of the Olympic Solidarity program, which granted me financial support to train for the 2024 Paris Olympic, which would have funded me without costing the Philippines a single centavo,” Obiena told the hearing
“But Mr. Juico himself did not give me the required NSA endorsement for my paperwork. Instead, he nominated another athlete who is a longshot, with all due respect to him or her, to get past the elimination in the Olympics,” he said then.
“The sad part of the whole thing is that the program is athlete specific. When Mr. Juico did not endorse me. The federation, the sport lost that one spot.”
The athlete he referred to was none other than Knott.
Juico said Patafa was exercising its prerogative when it nominated Knott for the IOC Solidarity scholarship fund, which meant a monthly stipend of $900 (roughly P47,155) for the athlete-beneficiary until they qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“To begin with, the nomination is initiated by the NSA, not the POC,” Juico had said, citing the fact that Obiena, who earned an estimated P2.6 million meets last year and lucrative endorsement deals with Puma and Ajinomoto, among others, already had other sources of funds on top of the support he was getting from the Philippine Sports Commission.
