by Reynald Magallon
EJ Obiena will be jumping on the biggest stage once more, this time in the lovely French capital.
The Filipino pole vault star formally clinched a spot to the 2024 Paris Olympics after clearing the qualifying standard of 5.82 meters to pluck a silver medal in the Stockholm Diamond League-Bauhaus Galan in Sweden, Monday morning (Manila time) July 3.
Obiena became the first Filipino to book a spot to the next year’s Olympiad after bettering the qualifying mark on his second attempt to also finish behind world record holder and world no. 1 Armand Duplantis who went on to clinch the gold with a 6.05m leap.
Failing to clear the standard in his first attempt, Obiena mustered all his might for the Olympic-clinching jump that would get him a shot at atoning his 11th place finish in the last edition of the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.
The splendid showing also allowed Obiena to keep his medal streak alive after landing on the podium in all of his previous five competitions in the outdoor season – highlighted by his 6.00m clearance in the Sparebanken Vest Bergen Jump Challenge in Norway last month, allowing him to become the first Asian In history to reach the mark.
The third best pole vaulter in the world would then try to clear 5.95 meters but failed after exhausting all of his three attempts, allowing Duplantis, as expected, to reign supreme in front of his home crowd.
Hardly breaking a sweat after only needing one attempt to clear all bars from 5.62m up to 6.05, Duplantis tried to go for the world record at 6.23 only to fail in all three tries.
Only Obiena and Duplantis managed to qualify during the competition with Pal Haugen Lillerfosse of Norway winning the bronze medal via countback after clearing 5.72m.
Belgium’s Ben Broeders was the other pole vaulter to reach a 5.72 clearance but both he and Lillerforsse both stumbled in their attempts for the qualifying standard.
