HOURS after his silver-medal romp at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Hungary, Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena revealed a bigger battle he dealt with before the global showcase.
READ: EJ Obiena bags silver in World Athletics Championships
Obiena faced a major setback two weeks prior to the men's pole vault qualification phase after testing positive for Covid-19.
In a short video recorded by Obiena during his isolation period, the world No. 3 bared the 'mentally taxing' struggle of being sidetracked from training in what is poised to be the best season of his career to date.
Comparing life to a rose with 'painful pricks that can shake us up (and) cause us to bleed,' Obiena shared the biggest and most recent thorn of his budding rise in the world stage.
"A mere two weeks ago, the thorns got to me. I was sick with Covid, I lost almost two weeks of heavy training, and I started to question why I got the thorns. I filmed this video when I was in the depths of pain," Obiena said.
"Thankfully I snapped out of it. I refused to be the victim. I accepted the rose, thorns and all! And decided to take matters into my own hands," he added.

Obiena captured the silver medal in the men's pole vault event with a second career clearance of the six-meter mark, behind heralded ace Mondo Duplantis' 6.10 m.
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