DESPITE playing second fiddle to Swedish ace Armand Duplantis anew, Ernest John Obiena emerged as the first Filipino athlete to punch his ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics early yesterday morning (Sunday night in Europe), jumping 5.82 meters for the silver in the Bauhaus Galan meet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Competing in the rain-delayed men’s pole vault event at the historic Stockholm Olympic Stadium, site of the 2012 Summer Games, Obiena took five tries to meet the Olympic qualifying standard of 5.82 meters and earn his return trip to the Summer Games in the French capital next year.
The 27-year-old Pinoy vaulter, who set a new Asian and national record of six meters in ruling the Bergen Jump Challenge in Bryggen, Norway last month, tried but failed to clear the bar at 5.95 meters.
As the newest member of the elite six-meter club, the lanky Filipino athlete looms as one of the country’s best medal prospects in Paris, and will try to improve on his 11th-place finish in the Tokyo Games in 2021 when he jumped 5.71 meters.
He was also the first national athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics when he eclipsed the qualifying standard of 5.80 meters with a jump of 5.81 meters in Chiari, Italy on Sept. 3, 2019.
“We are very happy that our son EJ nickname made it to the Olympics again. But as he himself said when he made six meters, there is still much room for improvement,” Jennet Obiena, the athlete’s mother, said for both herself and husband-coach Emerson.
“The pole vault event was delayed for two hours because of the rain. They were supposed to start at 5:30 p.m. but the competition actually started at 7:30 p.m. so this might have put our son out of his rhythm,” she noted.
Not wanting to disappoint the packed hometown crowd, Duplantis took the gold by clearing 6.05 meters on his first jump, and tried to surpass his world record of 6.21 meters but just could not get the lift needed to clear the bar at 6.24 meters at the rain-soaked arena.
Norway’s Pat Haugen Lilflosse tried to challenge Obiena but eventually settled for the bronze with a jump of 5.72 meters, relegating Tokyo Olympian Ben Broeders of Belgium to fourth on the countback.
Australia’s Kurtis Marschall beat Rio Olympic Games gold medalist Thiago Braz of Brazil to fifth place on the countback after both jumped 5.62 meters.
Obiena will next gear up for the 24t Asian Athletic Championships scheduled from July 12 to 16 at the Supachalasai National Stadium in Pattaya, Thailand.
He won the gold in the 2019 edition in Doha, Qatar with a jump of 5.71 meters.
