The vice-chairman of the Sports Ethics and Protection Committee (EDPA), Efthymios Efthymiou, has accused someone at the Cyprus Sport Organisation (CSO/KOA) of leaking details of a meeting to the shooting federation. The federation had complained about him over his comments on the national skeet team’s walkout at the European Championships.
In a letter to KOA president Giannis Ioannou on Tuesday, Efthymiou said a person who attended the meeting on KOA’s behalf had passed on what was discussed to the Shooting Federation of Cyprus (SKOK). “Someone is claiming the role of snitch for themselves, maybe more than one,” he wrote. He also set out how he has handled complaints brought to EDPA over the years.
SKOK president Lenos Kyriakou had complained about Efthymiou in a letter on Friday, October 16, to EDPA chairman Stefanos Skordis, copied to KOA. Kyriakou said Efthymiou had been wrong to comment on the shooters’ walkout because the incident had not been properly investigated by the competent body.
He indirectly suggested that the shooters’ rights had been violated and questioned whether Efthymiou could take part in any future investigation involving SKOK, implying that he had long been hostile to the federation. Kyriakou also objected to remarks he attributed to Efthymiou at a meeting at KOA’s offices the previous day.
That meeting, on Thursday, October 15, brought together members of KOA’s control committee with Skordis and Efthymiou. It formed part of an investigation that KOA and EDPA opened into the walkout, as Phileleftheros reported on October 13. Both bodies decided there was a case to examine, and Ioannou assigned the inquiry to KOA’s control committee.
Ioannou told Phileleftheros on Tuesday only that the meeting had taken place. He said the control committee was handling the matter and that he had written to SKOK and was waiting for its response. He also mentioned representations to the international federation. “We will also invite the athletes, to hear their side,” he said.
The Cyprus trio of Sotiris Antoniou, Giorgos Achilleos and Dimitris Konstantinou walked off during the men’s team skeet final against the Czech Republic at the European Championships in Malakasa, near Athens, on October 4. They were protesting at a judges’ ruling on a single target and were disqualified. Efthymiou said at the time that such behaviour damaged Cyprus and Cypriot sport internationally.
