By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
EJ Obiena kicks off his final preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics by competing in the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix on Saturday, May 18 (early Sunday in Manila) at the Drake Stadium in California.
The world No. 2 pole vaulters has actually been in town for the past weeks to gear up his training for his second stint at the Olympics slated July 26 to Aug. 11 at the French capital.
This would be Obiena’s fourth stint this year and first since he saw action in the World Athletics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland last March.
At the US tournament, Obiena will be up against a familiar field composed of hometown bets KC Lightfoot, Jacob Wooten, two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Chris Nilsen.
Also seeing action are Norwegians Sondre and Simen Guttormsen, and Saudi Arabia’s Hussain Al Hizam.
Except for Hizam and Simen, the rest of the field have already hit the Olympic qualifying standard of 5.82 meters. The US, however, has yet to nominate three athletes among those who qualified for the said event.
Obiena, who holds the national and Asian record of 6.00 meters, hopes to boost his current season-best of 5.93m he made at the ISTAF Indoor in Berlin, Germany last February. He posted 5.83m to win the Memorial Josip Gasparac in Croatia in his first tournament this year also in February.
The 28-year-old Tondo native also hopes to improve his previous finish at the world championships, where he managed a measly 5.65m for ninth place.
Obiena hopes to make it to the podium in the Paris Olympics this time after finishing 11th in Tokyo.
