The PCAG season turns into a two-horse race and, behind the scenes, there are more rumblings in the anti-doping investigation.
By CORWIN JONES
PCAG star Serena Duncan has retaken the lead in the championship tournament after weeks of trailing arch-rival Ryan Cahill and top competitor Alma Finnegan. Cahill now stands in second place and Finnegan in third, with most analysts predicting either Cahill or Duncan will retake the championship. It would be the third win for either player.
"I'm feeling pretty good now," Duncan said in interviews. "I feel like I've been performing below my own expectations, but last night against Klaus [Johnson], I finally hit my zone again." Pundits generally speculate that Duncan's resurgence is linked to her reconciliation with music mogul Helix Hesh. Duncan herself has disagreed, though, insisting that "when I'm in a match, nothing else even exists for me."
Cahill took his drop from the lead with equanimity. "It's a long month until the finals," he said. "Anything could happen before then." He also pointed out that statistically, only 28% of PCAG champions have held the lead at the end of the fourth knockout round.
Meanwhile, Paula Ching, director of the Substance Compliance program at the PCAG, is rumoured to be on the verge of filing charges in a drug investigation that has been running since August. PCAG chairman Robert Zhi-Hui admitted to reporters that a "very serious investigation" is in progress, but declined to offer specifics regarding the charges at stake, nor whom is likely to be targeted by them.
"We take failure to comply to our drug testing program very seriously," Zhi-Hui said, "but we also take seriously our responsibility to avoid tarnishing the reputations of innocent players. When we are confident we have a case, then we'll reveal the details to the public. Until then, we don't want to undermine the public's trust in the games in progress."
