Swim executive scored; Angping denies rap

GUANGZHOU – The absence of a manager who should have attended to the injured Rexel Ryan Fabriga of diving raised questions on the whereabouts of swim president Mark Joseph during the diving team competition at the Aoti Aquatics Center.

At the same time, former Philippine Sports Commission chairman Harry Angping yesterday said the PSC should not be blamed for the failure of the Filipino divers to train in China in preparation for the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Joseph said China closed its doors on the Filipino divers because Angping “refused to pay” the bills incurred during the divers’ training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Angping clarified that he was not the PSC chairman yet when the bills, amounting to close to P1 million, were incurred at the Xi’an Training Center.

“There was no formal request for me to settle that. The PSC has no record of such obligation,” said Angping, the PSC chief from February 2009 until July this year.

“It was (a deal) between the PASA and Xi’an. That account was incurred by PASA itself. So, why is he (Joseph) blaming the PSC?” said Angping.

“I was not PSC chairman yet then. I just learned about it and now he’s blaming me,” said the former Manila congressman.

Angping said when the Filipino divers could no longer train in Xi’an, he offered to PASA a couple of options, including that in Xianjing.

“Xi’an is just one of the many, many cities in China. I personally offered other places but it fell on deaf ears,” he added.

A medical bulletin issued by the Philippine medical team said Fabriga complained of a short-lived upper extremity weakness after being thrown off a short distance from his seat when the bus he was riding in with his coach collided with a car on their way to the diving venue Monday.

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) said every team is assigned a manager who will decide on whether the athlete is fit to compete or not.

The medical bulletin said Fabriga and his coach Lawrence Ifurong were brought to the competition venue for the scheduled 10m synchronized platform diving event.

The pair of Fabriga and Jaime Asok completed three of the six routines but dropped out before the fourth routine, prompting an investigation into the matter.

A Philippine team official said Joseph should be the first to report about the incident. His previous statements laying blame on the past PSC leadership for the the divers training woes showed he was not with the divers or in the venue when the event was ongoing. – With report from Abac Cordero