Swim body puts on hold RP tanker’s Athens bid

A full-blooded Filipino swimmer who met the Olympic B standard in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke last Sunday is being denied a chance to compete in Athens, Greece, next month.

Timmy Chua, born, raised and trained in the Philippines, qualified for the Olympics when he clocked one minute and 04.93 seconds in the Hong Kong Long Course Championships held in Kowloon over the weekend.

Chua’s time met the Olympic B standard of 1.05.02 in the said event. He would have easily made it as the 16th member of the RP team and the fifth swimmer that will see action for the country in Athens on Aug. 13 to 29.

But the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA) has apparently put Chua on hold, saying the 21- year-old engineering student from the University of the Philippines competed in Hong Kong without PASA’s approval.

Chito Rivera, PASA secretary-general, reportedly said that this is in direct violation of the associations’ rules and that of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) regarding athletes seeking Olympic slots.

The Hong Kong tournament is the last qualifying event for the Athens Olympics. It comes barely days before the July 21 deadline for all countries to submit their official lineup to the organizers in Athens.

"If he really qualified to the Olympics then he should go to Athens," said Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chair Eric Buhain who refused to go farther than that since the PSC can’t interfere in the affairs of RP sports associations.

"It is not in our hands to snatch away an opportunity which an athlete earned for himself," added Buhain, who deeply sympathized with Chua, one of the chose athletes under First Gentleman Mike Arroyo’s "Gintong Medalya" project.

Jenny Guerrero, a veteran of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, questioned PASA’s decision holding on to Chua’s inclusion to the RP team when it easily stamped its approval on Fil-American swimmers JB Walsh and Jaclyn Pangilinan.

Walsh and Pangilinan met the Olympic standards in US tournaments held as early as last February. The late announcements on their qualifications, however, raises doubts on whether their stints had prior approval by the PASA.

Aside from Walsh and Pangilinan, the other RP swimmers bound for Athens are Miguel Molina and Miguel Mendoza. They are also based in the US.