Pole vaulter vows to land gold

MANILA, Philippines — After a serious knee injury forced him out of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, pole vault ace EJ Obiena is poised to finish his unfinished business in the biennial meet when he guns for the gold medal on home ground later this year.

Obiena fired a warning shot to his SEAG rivals when he cleared 5.36 meters in only his first competition for 2019, the Ayala Philippine Athletics Championships in Ilagan City, surpassing the standing SEAG record of 5.35m posted by Thai Porranot Purahong in taking the gold in 2017.

The Italy-trained Phl star owns a personal best of 5.61m, which he set in Germany in July 2017 prior to tearing his ACL during training for the Malaysia SEAG.

“EJ’s surpassing the SEAG record augurs well for our participation in the forthcoming SEA Games,” said Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association president Philip Ella Juico. 

“Although a bit lower than EJ’s personal best, this is just his first jump for the new season. It shows how proper training, conditioning and nutrition, when combined at the right moment,  can produce outstanding results. EJ and others who had a hand in EJ’s latest feat sacrificed to gain this achievement. I look forward to more successes from EJ and the rest of the Patafa team,” added Juico.

Obiena said he’s excited to see Team Phl getting more depth in pole vault. 

Fil-Am Natalie Uy just smashed the record in the women’s division with her 4.12m during the Phl trackfest and fellow US-based Alyana Nicolas is also ready to vie for honors in the event. In the junior ranks, Ilagan City’s Hokett delos Santos and Santo Tomas’ Ma. Khrizzie Clarisses Ruzol swept the pole vault mints in the Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships held prior to the PAC.

“We have Natalie and Alyana, who will vie for the gold medal in the SEA Games. We’re hoping to do what the kids did (at the SEA Youth). They got the gold in girls and boys, hopefully in the SEA Games we’ll get the same results,” said Obiena, a silver medalist in his SEAG outing back in 2015.

The 23-year-old Obiena is also seeking to qualify for the 110m hurdles. He actually landed a podium in the Ilagan trackfest with 14.85 seconds behind the reigning SEA Games titlist, Malaysian Wan Sofian Rayzam Shah (14.12) and 2017 SEAG third-placer Clinton Bautista (14.22) but failed to meet the qualifying time.

“It’s going to be hard. There’s Clinton (Bautista) and Patrick Unso. I’m going to run my own race...so we’ll see,” said Obiena, who actually had won a gold in hurdles in the UAAP with 14.39, a league record back then.