Phl swimmers snare 7 golds; PSL bets barred

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines came through with a strong opening day performance in the Arafura Games tarnished by complaints that the country’s aquatics president allegedly barred the other Filipino bets from competing in the finals of various events in Darwin, Australia.

Aquatics chief Mark Joseph yesterday said the country has raked in a seven-gold, five-silver and two-bronze medal haul in Day One but the other group, the Philippine Swimming League-Diliman Prep (PSL-DSL), headed by former Sen. Nikki Coseteng, claimed the Phl could have won more if the former didn’t block the latter’s bets who made it to the finals of their respective events.

“Four of our five swimmers were not allowed to proceed to the finals even though they had topped the heats,” said Coseteng in a text message from Australia circulated to the media.

“Mark Joseph blocked our swimmers again from competing in spite of the fact that the highly trained swimmers were given support and assistance by the government.

“The organizers of the Arafura Games invited us to apply for participation, and we submitted proper documents. The PSC endorsed us, gave us uniforms, allowance and travel tax exemption while Australia issued visas,” she added.

Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia was also in Darwin along with the PSC endorsement but the organizers still decided to ignore the PSC endorsement based on the recommendation of Joseph, according to Coseteng.

“This is practically a slap on the PSC’s face by the head of a national sports association. With this, Joseph again shows his arrogance, insecurity and egotism. He cannot accept that our swimmers could be as good if not better than his so he blocked our swimmers from the finals so they can’t win medals,” said Coseteng.

“In some events, his swimmers won because our swimmers were not allowed to join, which is a blatant violation of children’s rights to pursue their dreams. They fight hard. So we all are wearing black ribbons now,” she said.

But Joseph said that Coseteng’s swimmers were allowed to compete only for exhibition for failing to comply with the event’s eligibility requirements.

“These swimmers were only allowed to swim for exhibition by the Arafura Games organizers because of their failure to comply with FINA, Australia and Arafura eligibility rules,” said Joseph.

“These people are always looking for excuses or people to blame, they don’t take responsibility for their own shortcomings and lack of understanding of simple rules that anyone can read on the Arafura website.

“Nonetheless, our legitimate Philippine team swimmers have been raking in the medals and improving their times tremendously with a day and a half to go. Currently, we’re ranked second overall,” he said.

Joseph said the victories came from Johansen Benedict Aguilar (50 backstroke -17 and above), Marc Artemius Joseph Paderon (200 IM- 13 to 14 yrs), Banjo Borja (200 IM – 17 and above), Dhill Andersen Lee (100 butterfly-17 and above), Hannah Dato (200 IM and 50 backstroke – 15 to 16 yrs) and Monique Bacolod (50 backstroke-17 and above).

The silvers, on the other hand, were won by Joanna Colleen Simbulan (200 IM-13-14 yrs), Aguilar (200 backstroke and 100 butterfly – 17 and above), Borja (50 backstroke – 17 and above) and Lee (200 IM-17 and above), while Roanne Florence Yu (50 backstroke-17 and above) and Raphael Sta. Maria (50 butterfly – 13-14 yrs) picked up two bronzes for the day.

But Coseteng insisted the country could’ve won more as Loren Echavez ruled the 200m freestyle heat while Priscilla and Antoniette Aquino and Kiefer Piccio made the cut, putting themselves in positions to add to the country’s medal collection.

“You can take my medals but not my heart and soul,” said a dejected Echavez. “Medals rot and it’s only a material thing but the organizers can not take my fighting heart.”