Obiena sweetens gold medal win in Austria with new national, Asian records

MANILA, Philippines — EJ Obiena has set a new national and Asian records with his gold medal performance in the 2021 Golden Roof Challenge in Austrian on Saturday (early Sunday morning, Manila time).

Clearing 5.93m in the tiff, Obiena shattered the previous national record of 5.91m, which he also set just a few weeks ago in the Paris Diamond League.

It also bested a 23-year-old Asian record set by Kazakhstan's Igor Potapovich when Obiena cleared 5.92m in 1998.

The Filipino needed all three attempts to clear 5.93m.

The gold medal was already in the bag for Obiena when all other participants bowed out after 5.80m.

Coming in second is the United States' Matt Ludwig with a single attempt to clear 5.60m while Turkey's Ersu Sasma took two tries to clear the same height.

Obiena is fresh from a fourth-place finish in the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich, Switzerland.