Obiena nearing summit, bags silver in world joust

MANILA, Philippines — One by one, Filipino pole-vault star EJ Obiena is breaking every record that he has set his sights on.

And on this one memorable Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila) in Budapest, Hungary, Obiena added another historic performance, capturing a breakthrough World Athletics Championships silver medal with a magnificent six-meter feat.

It’s another one for the books for Obiena who surpassed his bronze-medal showing in the previous Worlds in Eugene, Oregon – an accomplishment no other Filipino before him had ever achieved.

And it was the second time he cleared the mythical 6.0m plateau, a little more than a month after his first one in Bergen, Norway where he became the first Asian and 28th person in the planet to have ever done so.

After breezing through the qualifying round along with 13 others following an effortless 5.55m a few days back, the Asian champion from Tondo, Manila needed to go supernova in bagging the silver.

It was a great effort that only the Herculean Armand Duplantis eclipsed after the Olympic champion and world record-holder did an indomitable, gold-clinching 6.10m.

Obiena also reclaimed the World No. 2 ranking from American Christopher Nilsen, who settled for a bronze that he shared with Kurtis Marschall of Australia on their identical 5.95s.

Early on, the Southeast Asian Games gold winner sent warning signals that he’s going for nothing less than the gold when he vaulted to 5.85m – one of the five who did it, the others being Duplantis, Marschall, Nilsen and France’s Thibaut Collet.

Obiena then registered a 5.90m in just one try along with Nilsen and Collet while Marschall went straight for 5.95m that he did on his second attempt.

In the end, it boiled down to a Duplantis-Obiena showdown as they impressively got 6.0m.

But it was all Duplantis from there, with “Mondo” clearing 6.05m and 6.10m without a hitch while Obiena failed on his first try at 6.05m and the last two when he went for broke at 6.10m.

Already assured of the mint, Duplantis, who had breached the 6.0m mark for a record 50th time, went for a new world record of 6.23m but failed.

Duplantis later acknowledged the Obiena threat.

“It’s great. I’m not that disappointed because it seemed like Chris (Nilsen), EJ (Obiena) and Kurtis (Marschall) they were all in very good shape and they’re all guys that can jump six meters,” said Duplantis in a story that came out at Olympic.com.

“And for EJ to do that (6.0m), especially on the first attempt puts a lot of pressure on you. You’ve got to really go out there and get it done. I’m glad I was able to do it.”

Obiena had outperformed Duplantis twice – the first in Brussels, Belgium last year and the other and most recent one in Monaco a month ago. And it may be a matter of time he would beat his fiercest of rivals again.

The goal Obiena is pursuing now is a first Olympic medal in athletics for the Philippines since Miguel White brought home a 400m hurdles bronze in the 1936 Berlin Games.

Obiena has booked a spot to the Paris Games as early as last month.

And Duplantis should brace himself for an Obiena storm that may soon come.