Lydia De Vega, once dubbed as the fastest woman in Asia, dispelled rumors circulating on social media that she has passed away.
In a conversation with INQUIRER.net Wednesday night, De Vega said she was surprised about her fictional death and that she actually felt sorry for whoever wrote the malicious article.
“I don’t even know why someone would write such thing,” said De Vega in Filipino. “This kind of joke is not funny. I hope this serves as a lesson that he won’t do this kind of thing again.”
A fake news website under the URL houstonchronicle-tv.com broke the so-called story about De Vega’s death, saying that the former Asian sprint queen supposedly succumbed to illness.
The two-time Asian Games gold medalist scoffed at the hoax, which she found out when her children called her Wednesday morning to check up on her.
“I read the article, and it’s so fake because it said that I was rushed to V Luna (the avenue where the AFP Medical Center is located), but I’m not even in the Philippines,” said De Vega.
De Vega is now based in Singapore as an athletics coach for students.