POLE vaulter EJ Obiena found an emerging rival in fellow Tokyo Olympian Kurtis Marschall of Australia early yesterday morning (Tuesday night in Europe), settling for the bronze medal with a jump of 5.90 meters in the 62nd Golden Spike meet at the Mestsky Stadium in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia.
Both Obiena and Marschall, who was fifth in the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers but flopped in the finals, cleared the same height but the Aussie did it on his first attempt, in the process setting a personal best in the World Athletics Continental Gold tour series event.
As usual, Swedish Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis was a cut above the rest, clinching the gold with a season and meet best of 6.17 meters on his first jump, the first time an athlete soared over six meters in the event’s rich 62-year history, much to the delight of the crowd at the packed arena.
Obiena seemed satisfied by his performance, posting on his Facebook account shortly after the competition: “5.90m and here in @zlatatretra Thank you for everyone who went out and watch us jump some bars. Still lots of figuring out to do… Next stop @bauhausgalan.”
The lanky Filipino athlete was referring to the Bauhaus Galan, the seventh leg of the elite Wanda Diamond League series, that will be held on Sunday (Monday morning in Manila) at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium.
As is his wont, Obiena, 27, skipped the first two heights of 5.20 and 5.40 meters, then opened his bid by jumping 5.60 meters on his second try.
A gold medalist in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, Marschall, 26, got going at the 5.40-meter mark followed by 5.60 and 5.70 meters, which he all cleared on his first attempts.
Obiena passed up at 5.70 meters then jumped at 5.80 where he was successful on his second attempt.
Encouraged by his earlier tries, Marschall, who was second in the competition order, set a new personal record by clearing 5.80 meters before improving on that in nailing the silver, jumping 5.90 on his initial attempt.
Both Obiena and Marschall failed to clear six meters.
