Sam Catantan. Photo from her Instagram account: @samctntn

MANILA – National fencer Sam Catantan was grateful for the support her best friend Maxine Esteban expressed after her name got involved in Esteban's contrvoversial transfer to Côte d'Ivoire.

On April 3, the Philippine Fencing Association said it was "compelled to set the record straight" after Esteban changed federations, where Catantan's name was pitted against the former.

The former national team fencer, now representing the African nation, qualified for the Paris Olympics this July.

"I'm very, very grateful for the fact that she [Max] mentioned na I'm never involved with the situation," Catantan said in an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN News.

In a Facebook post, Esteban said, "It was never a fight between me and Sam," and called to stop the unwarranted attacks, "as she [Sam] is not at fault here."

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Catantan also described her "very good" relationship with her childhood best friend and clarified that there is no beef between them.

"We've always been very close po, me and Max. We've been best friends po since we were young. We've always traveled together, [competed] together. We were friends po like on and off the strip. We have very good relationship po talaga," she said.

But as different priorities emerged, the two might have drifted away but have always been in touch with each other.

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"And of course po we parted ways since I came here and we have different time zones and tsaka po mahirap din po talaga to get in contact with the person every time kasi we have different priorities. I'm very thankful po that she mentioned that I'm not involved," said Catantan.

The former Southeast Asian Games gold medalist also said she messaged her best friend the moment Esteban qualified for the Summer Games.

"I'm very, very proud of her; actually, I messaged her when I found out that she made it, and I know she's gonna make it," Catantan said.

Catantan, who is currently based in the United States as a student-athlete at Pennsylvania State University, will try to follow Esteban's footsteps to the Paris Games as she battles at the Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament in the United Arab Emirates on April 27–28.

READ: SEA Games: Fencing star Catantan suffers torn ACL

The Philippines' top-ranked fencer almost set foot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after placing third in the last qualifiers but ultimately missed it after only one athlete qualified for the Games that time.

READ: Maxine Esteban’s change of nationality affected PH fencing team, says PFA