Obiena lands 8th in Sweden

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ EJ Obiena stumbled to an eighth-place finish yesterday and watched in awe as world No. 1 Armand Duplantis dominated the event that was named after the latter – the Mondo Classic – in Uppsala, Sweden.

The Asian champion and world No. 4 managed just a 5.65-meter clearance, which was good for eighth spot out of 10 participants.

If the Southeast Asian Games gold winner hadn’t beaten Belgian Ben Broeders and Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, who had identical 5.65ms, via countback, the former would have finished either ninth or last.

Obiena could only watch Duplantis collect another gold effort after the sport’s greatest of all time cleared 6.05m in fending off serious challenges put up by Greek Emmanouil Karalis and battle-scarred American Sam Kendricks.

Karalis had a flat 6m while Kendricks 5.90m.