Most people would equate sporting success with hardware, but a mark of a truly great athlete is when one knows you have to take a step back and see where you should be heading.
Such is the current situation of 25-year-old EJ Obiena. He recently finished at a share of 11th place in the men’s pole vault event, Tuesday evening.
The University of Santo Tomas-product received plenty of praise despite the finish, but for Obiena himself, it was not what he expected.
“I would say, ‘It is what it is.’ I guess that’s the best phrase to describe what happened here now. It was clearly not my best day,” he admitted to MVP Sports Foundation ambassador Gretchen Ho.
“I don’t really know what happened. I think it was more mental than physical. You win some, you lose some. But I really wanted to win this stuff.”
The second-generation pole vaulter shared that he did not mind the pressure much, but something really felt off.
“As I said, it was more mental than physical. I can’t say it was pressure or whatever, it’s on me.
“I kept on saying it is just another competition. It isn’t, basically. I guess that hit me differently. So the result I have given today is not what I could have done definitely,” he continued.
With such a result, the current world no. 6 in the event’s future is up in the air as he needs to go back to the drawing board.
“I don’t know… That’s the thing. I need to regroup, think of what I need to do. I love the sport, [but] just a little bit right now I don’t love it that much. It’s like we have this fight,” he quipped.
“We’ll talk and in the next few days, I will know what I want to do. There’s a lot of things out there.”
