EJ Obiena clinches fifth place in post-Olympics tournament

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Filipino prized pole vaulter EJ Obiena finished fifth place out of 10 participants during the recently concluded Athletissima tournament held in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Obiena tallied an impressive 5.52-meters score and shared his no. 5 rank together with household names Ethan Cormont of France and KC Lightfoot of the United States.

It was a comfortable run for Obiena in the first two clearings but couldn’t get the better of the 5.62-meter mark.

Olympic gold medalist Armand Duplantis suffered a shocking defeat in the tournament after settling for fourth place while Christopher Nielsen dominated the event with his 5.82-meters score.

American legend Sam Kendricks, who missed the Tokyo Olympics after contracting COVID-19, was behind Nielsen while Timur Morgunov of Russia placed third with 5.72-meters.

Weeks after his Tokyo Olympics stint, Obiena chose to stay in his training camp in Italy and immediately went back to work.

Obiena refused to come home to the Philippines and have his heroes’ welcome together with his co-Filipino athletes and is laser-focused to sweep all point-boosting international tournaments.