Filipino Pole Vaulter EJ Obiena Finishes Fourth at Paris Olympics 2024
Filipino athlete EJ Obiena finished in fourth place after a nail-biting final round for the Men's Pole Vault event that started at 1 a.m. on August 6 (Manila time) and ended at almost 4 a.m.
The Filipino athlete was head-to-head with 11 other pole vaulters. He cleared the height of 5.90 meters.
Sweden's Armand Duplantis, who previously held a World Record of 6.24 meters, bagged the gold medal. While his opponents were already faulted out, he tried to beat his record and went on to clear 6.10 meters. He failed the first two tries at 6.25, but successfully cleared it on his third attempt. This is a new World Record and his new Personal Best.
USA's Sam Kendricks comes in second with 5.95 meters, and Greece's Emmanouil Karalis is third with 5.90 meters. While Karalis and Obiena both cleared 5.90 meters, the Filipino pole vaulter failed three consecutive times at 5.95 and had a failed attempt at 5.80 before that. His opponent missed one try at 5.95; then went straight to 6.00 with two failed tries.
EJ Obiena's Scores at the Men's Pole Vault Final
Obiena was ranked second in the 2023 World Athletics Rankings before going into the Paris Olympics 2024 finals. His Personal Best was at 6.00, which he cleared in June 2023 in Norway.
For anyone just getting into watching the sport or following Obiena, pole vault as a track and field event can be a lot of waiting for both viewers and players as they wait for their turn to jump.
Basically, athletes sprint down a runway, catapult themselves into the air using a pole, and jump over a horizontal bar without knocking it over. They are given only three attempts to clear a certain height before going to the next. If they fail on the third try of the same height, then they're out. Players have to attempt the succeeding heights until most of them are eliminated because of consecutive, unsuccessful jumps. The winner is the athlete who successfully clears the highest height.
Under the Monday afternoon sun in Paris, Obiena cleared the opening height of 5.50 meters, then the 5.70 meters. He failed on his first attempt to clear 5.80, and decided to forego the second and third tries. The risk of going straight to 5.85 paid off, as he jumped it successfully on his first try. Same for 5.90. Obiena, however, failed all three attempts on the 5.95 meters.
Obiena's Nail-Biting Qualifying Round
It can be remembered that Obiena almost did not qualify for the final round after failing to clear the 5.60-meter height twice. So, instead of trying the 5.60-meter round for the third time, he went straight to attempt to clear the 5.70-meter height and get ahead of the pack. Obiena let out a celebratory scream after a successful run of one of the most critical moments in his Paris Olympics 2024 experience. He went on to clear the 5.75 meters, the highest successful attempt of nine other athletes during the qualifying round.
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Who is EJ Obiena?
Born on November 17, 1995, in Manila, Obiena's journey to becoming a world-class pole vaulter was almost preordained. His father, Emerson Obiena, a Filipino pole vaulter, won a silver medal at the 1993 Southeast Asian Games and a bronze medal at the 2005 SEA Games. The older Obiena's personal best is at 4.95 meters. His mother, Jeanette Uy, played collegiate hurdles for Centro Escolar University.
Obiena first held a pole vault at the tender age of eight but eventually focused on his mother's sport. He represented his high school, Chiang Kai Shek College, in the 100 and 400-meter hurdles events, then returned to pole vault in his senior year. His father served as his coach until he was 18 years old.
The pole vaulter then played for Ateneo de Manila University for one season before moving to the University of Santo Tomas, where he played track and field before going pro. In a 2022 24 Oras interview, Obiena said he "would really wanna finish, and I would wanna graduate in UST." The student-athlete majoring in electronics engineering has been on leave from university to focus on his training.
Obiena started training in Italy under coach Vitaly Petrov for three months in 2014. Upon his return, he broke the national record for pole vault and cleared 5.01 meters at the PATAFA weekly relays on July 20, 2014. This height is .01 higher than Filipino athlete Edward Lasquete's record at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. It also broke the junior national record since Obiena wasn't turning 18 until November of that year.
He went on to represent the country in various international competitions. He competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo in 2021, where he ranked 11th in the Men's Pole Vault after clearing 5.70 meters.
To date, Obiena has the following medal count in the World Championships, Asian Games, Asian Athletics Championships, and Southeast Asian Games:
- World Championships - 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
- Asian Games - 1 Gold
- Asian Athletics Championships - 2 Gold, 1 Bronze
- Universiade - 1 Gold
- Southeast Asian Games - 3 Gold, 1 Silver
He cleared six meters for the first time in June 2023 at the Sparebanken Vest Bergen Jump Challenge in Norway. Obiena once again cleared the six-meter height during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August 2023.
