Pole vault specialist EJ Obiena hopes to redeem himself from a failed gold-medal campaign the previous edition when he sets his sights on this year’s 2017 Southeast Asian Games edition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August.
The 21-year-old Obiena settled for the silver medal with a record of 5.25 meters – his personal best.
He remembered vividly how he tried but failed to clear the 5.30m bar – a new Southeast Asian Games record – while the remaining competitor, Porranot Purahong of Thailand, successfully cleared it.
“I was expected to win the gold last SEA Games,” Obiena admitted in an online interview. “But the Thai had a really good rhythm going to 5.30m and he cleared it, while I failed to do the same.”
Obiena said he tried not to dwell to much on what happened two years ago and just focused ahead on his future tournaments.
It was tough, as he also failed to qualify in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“The past two years were not as solid as I am expecting them to be, but I try not to look back at the past,” Obiena said.
However, he plans to get the gold medal this time in Malaysia – particularly focusing on improving his current best of 5.25m to 5.55m this time.
A third-year engineering student at University of Santo Tomas, Obiena has been training in Formia, Italy since December under Ukrainian Coach Vitaly Petrov, his mentor since 2014.
