CHEERED ON by a home crowd, two-time Olympian and UST alumnus EJ Obiena soared to the top prize of the first-ever Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge on Sunday, Sept. 21, at the Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati.
The Tondo-native cleared 5.80 meters to seize gold on the second day of the inaugural meet he helped make possible.
“The competition was a little bit poetic… the rain actually gave us the time to compete at our best,” Obiena said after besting eight other competitors on a cloudy afternoon.
“[E]verybody showed up and the crowd powered through this rain,” he added, expressing gratitude to the fans in attendance.
France’s Thibaut Collet settled for silver after hurdling 5.80m on his third attempt, while Poland’s Piotr Lisek rounded out the podium with a 5.60m clearance.
Meanwhile, UST Trackster Hokett delos Santos had an early exit as he struggled to get past the 4.90m mark. He was included in the global stage following a gold finish in the national-level contest held the previous day.
Other athletes present in the competition were Turkey’s Ersu Sasma, the Netherlands’ Menno Vloon, Belgium’s Ben Broeders, Germany’s Oleg Zernikel, along with Americans Austin Miller and Matt Ludwig.
This served as a bounce-back victory for Obiena, who endured an early stumble at the World Athletics Championships last Sept. 13 in Tokyo, Japan. F
