By: Ernest Tuazon
The hunt for the Philippines’ first Olympics athletics medal in 88 years continues for EJ Obiena.
The world’s second-best pole vaulter achieved his best performance in his young Olympic career to secure a spot in the final of the men’s pole vault in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on Saturday.
The 28-year-old athlete bested his 5.70-m, 11th place performance in the 2020 Games with one attempt at 5.75 meters to finish at 7th place among the 12 finalists and book a ticket to the men’s pole vault final of the 2024 Olympics.
Obiena will hope to reach greater heights and shoot for his first-ever Olympic medal in the Final set on Tuesday at 1 a.m. (Manila time), at the same venue.
The organizing committee of the men’s pole vault opted to not push through 5.80-m as the 12 finalists have been completed, 10 in Group A and two in Group B, respectively.
The University of Santo Tomas product will advance to the final alongside Duplantis, Norwegian bet Sondre Guttormsen, Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, Turkish athlete Ersu Sasma, Netherlands’ Menno Vloon, USA’s Sam Kendricks, German bet Bo Kanda Lita Baehre, Aussie Kurtis Marschall, Germany’s Oleg Zernikel, Latvia’s Kreiss Valters, and Chinese bet Bokai Huang.
Obiena let out a loud roar after clearing 5.70-m in one go to avoid elimination and keep his Olympic medal contention alive.
The Asian pole vault record holder was forced to skip his last attempt at 5.60-m and to shoot for 5.70-m after hitting the bar on his first two attempts at the former clearance.
Obiena skipped out on vaulting the 5.40-meter height to open the qualification phase in Group A, similar to world record holder Armand Duplantis from Sweden.
The two-time medalist in the World Athletics Championships qualified to the finals despite the lingering back issues he had been dealing with leading to the qualifying phase of the pole vault tilt.
The Philippines last bagged an athletics medal in the Olympics in 1936 when Miguel White finished with a bronze medal in the men’s 400-meter hurdles held in Berlin.
