2023-11-09 15:12:53
Felipe De la Fuente, technical manager of the Chilean Athletic Federation (Fedachi), was one of those involved in the great controversy of the women’s 4×400 relay, regarding the election of the starters for the competition framed by the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
In his version of events, De la Fuente acknowledged that a fight occurred, in verbal terms, minutes before the athletes had to jump onto the track. In addition, he disclosed a discussion he had with Ximena Restrepo, member of the Organizing Committee, mother of Martina Weil and vice president of World Athletics.
In interview with LUN, the technical manager of Fedachi began by contextualizing how this controversy originated. “When I arrived at the track I spoke with Juan Pablo (Raveau), head of the speed area, who was the first person to welcome me. He told me that Marcelo (Gajardo) was making some changes that he did not agree with, that during the selection process there was a starting team, but Gajardo was integrating the reserves instead of the starters. So, I approached Marcelo to recommend that he see the starting team, which is the one that had to enter the court. “Marcelo responded to me that he had made the decision, that he had already informed the girls and that he was not going to back down,” he said.
“There the president of the Federation, Juan Luis Carter, called me, who spoke with Marcelo and removed him from office, because he was not paying attention to either the technical manager, who in this case is me, or Juan Pablo Raveau, who is the area manager, nor to the other technicians,” he continued.
De La Fuente explained that “Marcelo left and I had to take charge of the problem. I went down to see what was happening and ended up taking charge of the situation. I told Juan Pablo that Poulette (Cardoch) and Berdine (Castillo) could run relays again. Juan Pablo told me that La Poulette was not going to race because she was very emotionally destroyed. He had cried and fell to the ground when they told him that he was not going to run.”
After that, the technical manager of the Athletic Federation explained how Ximena Restrepo entered the scene. “When I told Violeta Arnaiz that I would not be part of the relay and that Berdine would go, Ximena approached me to tell me that she did not agree with Berdine running, because she had just run the 800 meters, that she was tired, that she couldn’t. She told me that we were making terrible decisions and doing very badly. She also argued with Juan Pablo. I don’t know what they said, but she told me that we were doing terrible, that we were terrible coaches, that how could we do that to the team, that we were destroying everything. “I told him that the starting team was there and that I had to solve the problem that had been generated with the decision to replace the starters,” he said.
In that sense, De La Fuente acknowledged that there were screams and bad words. “It was indeed a super tense moment. That must be admitted, it was a tense moment between the technicians. The athletes were greatly affected. That is a mea culpa that we have to make because it was a situation that got out of control and the most exposed were the girls, because they all want to run. Yes, I must say that Ximena Restrepo did not insult me, she did not say anything to me and she did not discriminate against anyone,” she stated.
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