By REY C. LACHICA
PARIS — For EJ Obiena, life must go on.
First in his agenda after his failed bid in the Paris Olympics is tournament he will be hosting in the Philippines soon.
The tentative date in on Sept. 20 but still have little details about the event because he was tied up with all his preparations heading the Olympics.
“I’m trying to host a competition to bring these guys that have competed here today to the Philippines. It’s already in the calendar of World Athletics, you can check it out,” said Obiena, who is still trying to process the outcome of his fourth place finish.
Obiena said his legal spokesperson and a European guy are helping each other to make it happen that could impact the growth of pole vault in the country.
“The European guy, he knows everything,” said Obiena. “He runs these things in Europe.”
Looking into the events calendar of the world athletics, details of the tournament was already listed with the event revealed to be part of the World Athletics Continental tour — Challenger. The tournament, which is called Philippine International Pole Vault Challenge is set at the Ayala Triangle Garden.
Will Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis going to Manila?
Obiena does not think so.
“Oleg (Zernikel) will come. I think Emmanouil (Karalis) will come. Bokai (Huang) will come. So we’ll see. We’ll try to invite everyone. Maybe Ursu (Sasma of Turkey). I’ll try to get, you know, the Olympic finals and have a really good competition in the Philippines,” said Obiena.
PH athletics boss Terry Capistranio is yet to reply whether the association is fully supporting the staging a star-studded tournament.
