Gothenburg, Sweden, June 3, 2021: The Philippines’ Tokyo-bound pole vaulter Ernest “EJ” Obiena made a golden start to the outdoor season on Wednesday, June 2 by winning the Gothenburg Athletics Grand Prix title in Sweden.
The 25-year-old “Filipino Eagle” won the gold medal with a clearance of 5.70 metres, ahead of Brazil’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games champion Thiago Braz on 5.65m.
Norway’s Pal Haugan Lillefosse took the bronze medal on 5.60 ahead of the United States’ Cole Walsh on a countback after he had also cleared a season’s beat 5.60.
Obiena tried to improve on his gold medal-winning clearance of 5.70 metres but failed on all three attempts at 5.80.
Still, it was a fine start to the season as Obiena prepares for his Olympic Games challenge.
Based in Italy, Obiena won the Asian Championships title at Doha on April 21, 2019 with a clearance of 5.71m. Later that year he won the World University Games pole vault crown in Napoli (ITA) with 5.76m and added the Southeast Asian Games gold medal at the end of 2019.
It was the third golden effort by Obiena this year after winning two indoor meets in Dortmund and Berlin in February, Phil Star Global reports.
Obiena is hoping to improve on a personal-best 5.86m he set in the Orlen Cup in Lodz, Poland also in February as he ramps up his training with less than two months to go before Tokyo.
He is also eyeing to become the first Filipino Olympic medalist in athletics since Miguel White captured a 400m hurdles bronze in the 1936 Berlin Games.