By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Filipino pole vaulting sensation EJ Obiena was hailed as the king of the Internationales Stabhochsprung-Meeting in Germany after bagging another gold medal.
Obiena got the better of all the 10 tournament participants and bounced back after a fourth-place finish during the 2022 Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary.
The Filipino superstar scored a final tally of 5.81-meters and got past the two other heights with ease.
His gold medal win also helped him qualify for the 2023 World Championships in Hungary as his score met the standard for the tournament’s cut-off.
Obiena attempted to break his own Asian record by setting the 5.95-m height for his final jump but faltered to reset history after notching three fouls.
Aside from another addition to his gold medal collection, Obiena got a morale-boosting finish after outdueling Chris Nilsen who was the Tokyo Olympics silver medalist.
Nilsen registered a final score of 5.71-m and managed to grab second-place honors while Kurtis Marschall of Australia settled for the bronze medal.
Completing the cast of the Internationales Stabhochsprung-Meeting participants are Tray Oates of USA, Germany’s Bo Kanda Lita & Oleg Zernikel, and Sondre Guttorsmen from Norway.
After his stint in Germany, Obiena is set to continue his momentum in the Lausanne Diamond League in Switzerland and the True Athletics Classics in Germany.
“Great start for the second part of the season. We got the gold medal and then got the standard for next year’s World Champs in Hungary,” posted Obiena on his Facebook page.
