INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines?It was the Union Cycliste Internationale(UCI), not officials of the Philippine Olympic Committee, that broached the idea of sending a representative to help settle the leadership dispute in local cycling.

POC deputy secretary general Mark Joseph made this clarification on Friday as he disputed an Inquirer report that was attributed to him.

Joseph said UCI president Pat McQuaid himself made the suggestion during informal chats with POC officials in the fringes of International Olympic Committee functions last year in Copenhagen and in the Vancouver Winter Olympics recently.

?There?s a possibility that the UCI may send a representative to the Philippines,? Joseph pointed out. ?It?s nothing more than a possibility. This possibility was raised by UCI, not the POC.?

Joseph, also chief of the national aquatics association, also reiterated the POC stand that it cannot recognize the group of PhilCycling president and Tagaytay Mayor Abraham Tolentino because it violated rules mandated by the local Olympic body for NSAs when it held its elections last year.

?Our mandate as final arbiter in intra-NSA disputes is in our IOC-approved constitution and we will stand by the facts on the cycling issue,? said Joseph.