Fresh from taking a historic bronze in the World Championships, EJ Obiena took another top-three finish with a 5.73 at the men’s pole vault event of the 2022 Kamila Skolimowska Memorial tournament, Saturday evening (Philippine time) at the Slaski Stadium in Chorzow, Poland.
The tournament serves as a leg of the 2022 Wanda Diamond League series, but pole vault is not counted for this leg as part of the events that provide points toward qualifying for the Diamond League final in Zurich later in the year.
Nonetheless, World Ranking points are awarded in the event and Obiena also looked into this to build momentum for future tournaments.
The 26-year-old standout encountered an early mishap after missing on his first-time attempt at the initial height of 5.53 meters but eventually took care of the said height. He then decided to pass on 5.63.
Obiena then also needed an additional try at 5.73 before clearing the said height. It eventually became his final mark.
Elsewhere in the field, Christopher Nilsen, Thiago Braz, and Thibaut Collet also had problems at 5.53, which eventually saw Braz and Collet out with no marks.
Nilsen finished with 5.53 after three misses at 5.63, while hometown bet Piotr Lisek went out with 5.63. That left Obiena, Sondre Guttormsen, and World champion Armand Duplantis the ones left at 5.83.
Guttormsen and Obiena took three attempts at 5.83, which they could not clear, sealing yet another Duplantis win — his second straight DL leg after losing to Ben Broeders in Oslo.
Duplantis eventually ended with 6.10 meters, which is a new meet record, taking down the mark of 5.91 set by Lavillenie in August 2017.
Guttormsen took second place over Obiena on the first-time clearance of 5.73 against the latter’s two tries.
