By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
EJ Obiena tallied back-to-back international gold medal finishes after reigning supreme during the Net Aachen Domspringen pole vaulting tournament held in Germany last September 6, 2023.
Fresh off a dominant outing at the ISTAF Berlin Meet four days ago, Obiena showed he still has enough gas left in the tank to clinch his second-straight championship title.
Obiena was just fluid with his routines and was able to cap off his golden leap with a score of 5.92-meters to outduel the other 14 participants from all over the world.
Sam Kendricks of the USA stayed behind Obiena and nabbed the silver medal with a 5.87m finish while France’s Thibaut Collet completed the list of podium finishers after scoring 5.82m for the bronze medal.
Menno Vloon from the Netherlands, Austin Miller from USA, Latvia’s Valters Kreiss, and Dominik Alberto from Switzerland also joined the prestigious competition but failed to make it into the top five.
Obiena has been on a roll since suffering his worst performance of the year in Switzerland, ranking dead last while breaking his streak of international podium finishes.
After the disappointing outing, Obiena vowed to do better and train harder to avoid upsets like that in the coming international competitions.
Up next for Obiena is the Brussels leg of the Wanda Diamond League. After that, the Filipino star will take a much-needed rest before focusing on the 2023 Asian Games.
Obiena will strive to claim those gold medals to inch closer to Duplantis as the world’s king of pole vaulting.
Despite all the achievements Obiena collected in nine months, all his focus and attention are still set on the upcoming 2023 Paris Olympics.
