By Kristel Satumbaga
Olympic pole vaulter EJ Obiena needs to produce an extra-ordinary performance when he goes up against the cream of the crop in the IAAF Diamond League Athletics in Monaco this Friday.
Obiena, who is fine-tuning for next year’s Tokyo Games, arrived in Monaco from Italy on Thursday eager to improve on his performance the last time as most of them are still trying to get their rhythm after being inactive for almost five months due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Still his performance two weeks ago was good enough, finishing 2nd in the 13th Triveneto Meet in Trieste, Italy.
In that event, he managed to clear the 5.45-metter barrier which was way off his personal best of 5.81 meters.
But in Friday’s meet, Obiena has to give it all is he is to be considered as “one of the big boys” in their event.
“Time to put on some big boy pants!” Obiena posted on his Facebook account. “Let’s get some diamond and get this season rollin’!”
Obiena will be up against seven elite athletes that include reigning Olympic gold winner Thiago Braz of Brazil, 2016 Rio Games bronze medalist Sam Kendricks and 2019 Doha World Championship silver winner Armand Duplantis of Sweden.
Other participants are Ben Broeders of Belgium, Thibaut Collet and Valentin Lavillenie of France, and Claudio Michel Stecchi of Italy.
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field competitions comprising 15 of the best invitational athletics meetings where Obiena hopes to gauge his skills leading up to the Olympics.
He has been training extensively in Italy with Braz.
