UKRAINIAN coach Vitaly Petrov was neither tricked nor pressured.
Athletics chief Philip Ella Juico stressed this yesterday as he belied the statement of Petrov to one single media outfit over the controversy that has placed pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena in hot water with the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association.
In his statement, Petrov claimed that he was “tricked” by Juico into answering a questionnaire composed of 52 questions dated Sept. 23 signed by the coach, detailing his dealings with Obiena from 2018 until last September concerning unpaid salaries that were owed him for training the athlete.
Malaya-Business Insight was able to obtain a copy of the signed questionnaire where Petrov stated that, except for some instances that he received money from Dubai-based American businessman Jim Lafferty, Obiena’s benefactor, he was unaware of the wages he was supposed to get from the PSC coursed through the athlete.
“I never could have imagined it would be used in a way now as a weapon to destroy a promising career,” Petrov claimed, reiterating that he was fully paid the 85,000 euros (4.8 million) that Patafa wants Obiena to return. The money was released by the Philippine Sports Commission for Petrov’s salaries since 2018.
“Petrov was asked and he answered freely and even volunteered information. He was fully aware. He knows the truth,” Juico said.
The Patafa demand letter to Obiena last Nov. 15 came after Juico talked with World Athletics Senior Vice President Sergey Bubka, a former world and Olympic champion and Petrov’s foremost protégé, and the coach last September.
It emerged from that chat that Petrov was allegedly not paid since 2018, which was later attested to by Bubka, also the Ukrainian Olympic Committee President.
“Why would Petrov, Sergey and I invent such a story? How could I sustain an elaborate web of deception and lies with the participation of such an honorable person like Sergey Bubka?” Juico asked.
“I am constrained to speak out. I will have to say something to Coach Petrov because of his serious accusations that I ‘pressured’ him into signing a statement to make Obiena look bad,” Juico said.
“I wonder, however, if a sports group is pressuring him (Petrov) to issue a statement to make me look bad prior to a code of conduct committee hearing,” Juico said, referring to the Philippine Olympic Committee probe on the issue by its Ethics Committee led by rowing chief Pato Gregorio.
“Petrov disclaims preparing a questionnaire that he, however, himself answered, corresponded and e-mailed,” Juico said.
“How can Petrov be pressured, coerced, misled, or tricked by me or Patafa when we are not even in the same continent or time zones! Obiena is, on the other hand, with him probably 12 hours a day, every day up to Saturday,” he emphasized.
“How can I exercise any form of moral ascendancy over Petrov, when on the contrary, Patafa and I had expressed our thanks to him for training Obiena and accepting Obiena through a scholarship program I myself worked on together with Sergey Bubka (who was present in all conversations I had with Petrov with respect to the unpaid fees),” Juico pointed out.
