MANILA – Filipino pole vaulter and world No. 3 Ernest John “EJ” Obiena fell short of repeating over No. 1 seeded and world champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden.
The 6-foot-2 Obiena settled for a bronze medal finish in the 2023 Mondo Classic on Thursday evening (Friday in the Philippines) at Upsalla, Sweden.
Obiena, a 2020 Tokyo Olympics campaigner, ended with just a bronze medal in a tournament participated by well-known pole vaulters with a 5.91 meters leap.
Duplantis captured the gold medal after tallying a massive 6.10 meter clearance, while United States’ KC Lightfoot was a distant silver medallist with 5.91 meters.
This was the first meeting between Obiena and Duplantis following the former’s stunning gold medal win in the Brussels Diamond League in Brussels, Belgium in September 2022.
In the said tournament, Obiena managed to unseat Duplantis after clearing 5.91 meters on his third and final attempt. The Swiss settled for silver medal with 5.81 meters.
The bronze in Sweden was the third medal of the former University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers pole vaulter in his last three tournaments this 2023 season.
Obiena earlier captured a silver medal in the Internationales Springer-Meeting in Cottbus, Germany with a 5.77m jump before bagging a gold in the Perche En Ors tournament in Roubaix, France with 5.82 meters.
Obiena was supposed to compete in the Asian Indoor Athletics Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan slated from February 10 to 12 but backed out.
According to reports, the Filipino pole vaulter was forced to cancel his participation in the tournament because no aircraft from the transit point of Astana can load his poles./PN
