POLE vaulter Ernest John Obiena is trying to narrow the gap between him and reigning Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden with the Paris Olympic Games looming over the horizon.
“I want to be stronger, faster and go a little bit higher than last year,” Obiena said online from Formia, Italy as he accepted the Athlete of the Year award from the Philippine Sportswriters Association during the PSA Awards rites last Monday night at the Diamond Hotel ballroom.
“If things go and fall into place, it (the training) should put me closer to the world No. 1 (Duplantis) and give myself a better chance. This is all I can ask for. This is what I am doing right now,” he added.
Seeking to add another milestone as the country celebrates a century of participation in the quadrennial sports spectacle, Obiena is deep in training in Formia, gearing up for the Paris Olympics in July.
“Unfortunately, I can’t be there physically because I am here to represent my country and I shall do my country my very best (in the Olympics),” he said during the event presented by ArenaPlus, the leading sports entertainment gateway in the country; and the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, Milo, PLDT/Smart, and Cignal as major sponsors.
Slowly but steadily, the lanky Pinoy athlete is emerging as the top contender to the Swedish sensation in the battle for the gold, particularly after becoming the first Asian athlete to breach the six-meter mark not once but twice.
The last time was when he secured the silver medal in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary last August, easily surpassing the Olympic qualifying mark of 5.82 meters to become the first Filipino bet to book a ticket to the Paris Summer Games.
He said that making those six-meter jumps “were the most memorable moments” of a year marked by one victory over another, capped by a record-breaking jump of 5.90 meters in the last 19th Hangzhou Asian Games in August.
Obiena’s achievement broke a 27-year-old dry spell since the late sprint legend Lydia de Vega ruled the women’s century dash in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.
“It’s been a good year for me. It’s the first time I fulfilled every promise I made in achieving goals that I set out to do,” he added.
He bared that he was initially ambivalent about the rare grand achievement that he received from the country’s oldest media organization composed of the members of the sports writing fraternity.
“It (the honor)) lets me think a little bit deeper what I do for a living, what’s my profession.
I am a professional pole vaulter. I basically run, plant my fiberglass pole using speed and momentum, with a little bit of physics and propel myself over the bar, that is what I do, that is my job, that is my profession,” he said.
“If I look at it this way, this humbles me big time, and it grounds my feet. (When you think of it).”
Accepting the award for Obiena were his parents, national coach Emerson and spouse Jennet Obiena, in the presence of Philippine Olympic Committee president and Tagaytay Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Richard Bachmann, and PSA president Nelson Beltran.
Businessman and sports patron Manny V. Pangilinan also echoed some of the sentiments Obiena expressed in accepting the PSA Co-Executive of the Year Award with San Miguel honcho Ramon Ang.
“When we hear all these triumphs in sports, we can truly believe that we are world class,” noted MVP in his acceptance speech.
