Citing extensive testing, Obiena camp insists pole vault star is clean amid doping accusation
MANILA, Philippines – The camp of Olympic pole vaulter EJ Obiena reiterated on Thursday that he has never doped, and that he has polygraph and even eye behavior-related lie detector test results to prove it.
The issue stemmed from Anais Lavillenie, the wife of Olympic gold medalist Renaud Lavillenie of France, who commented on a Facebook post by Vaulter Magazine-Vaulter Club Inc.
There, Lavillenie accused Obiena of doping, same as Brazilian Thiago Braz, who was mentored by the Asian pole vault king’s coach, Vitaly Petrov.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Obiena’s advisor James Lafferty said the Asian Games gold medalist was tested 34 times by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA.)
According to Lafferty, this year alone, the World No. 2 pole vaulter was tested 11 times.
Obiena was never flagged by the WADA for doping, Lafferty bared.
The advisor said that under WADA rules, they will only disclose tests if the competitor tests positive for illegal substances.
There has been no public release “on anything whatsoever,” Lafferty added.
The advisor said that Braz, who won the gold medal in the 2016 Olympics and the bronze in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, has been out of Vitaly’s camp since 2022, and that there were no linkages at the time.
Hester du Plessis, a certified polygraph examiner according to Obiena’s camp, bared that the pole vaulter passed both a polygraph test and EyeDetect — described as a “next-generation lie detector test” based on eye movement, per its official website.
There were two aspects that were covered by the tests — doping in the past eight years and match fixing.
While there were no allegations of match fixing against Obiena, it was part of testing protocol to cover multiple areas.
Obiena, du Plessis revealed, passed both tests, and that “no deception was indicated on related questions.”
The EyeDetect report provided to members of the media bared that Obiena was tested on October 18, and resulted in a “credible” Converus Credibility Score of 80 and 99 for doping and match fixing, respectively, which “indicates unlikely involvement or participation.”
'Not a cheat'
For his part, Obiena insisted that he has never doped.
“For me, personally, the accusations were made pretty baseless. It did not just affect me, personally, but the team and my coach, personally as well, and people I work with,” he said.
“I’m not a cheat, I didn’t do anything to enhance my performance illegally. It’s all because of the hard work of the team, and therefore I believe that statement really damaged the reputation that I’ve carefully built the past few years,” he added.
He added that he is “pissed” of what happened, especially since the allegation came from nowhere.
“I had not talked to this woman. I know her, but personally, I have not interacted with her. For her to say this out in public, against me, my team and my coach, makes me fuming,” he said.
Lafferty echoed this, saying Obiena is “pissed off on a different level” and is more motivated ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Obiena qualified for the Paris meet back in July, the first Filipino to do so, after snatching the silver medal of the Wanda Diamond League’s Bauhaus Galan in Sweden.
The team is still unsure of whether they will be pursuing legal action against Lavillenie, saying they have to look into the pros and cons of the matter before ultimately deciding.
“We are still in discussion with attorneys in both France and the Philippines. It’s not a conclusive decision at this point, but part of the reason that we did these tests is to bolster the legal case,” Lafferty stated.
“Now, we are keeping that option open and evaluating the pros and cons of it. I mean, we also have to remember that this is an Olympic year, and there are many considerations involved in whether we go the legal route. We will let you know very, very soon if we’re gonna file a case or not. But for now, it’s under evaluation.”
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