[EDITOR'S NOTE: Get to know the 22 Filipino athletes bound for the 2024 Paris Olympics through this SPIN.ph series]
THE Paris Olympics may very well be the first Summer Games in a long, long while where the Philippines will win a medal in athletics.
EJ Obiena stands a good chance at claiming that distinction by virtue of being the No. 2-ranked pole vaulter in the world, just behind defending Olympic champion and world record-holder Mondo Duplantis.
READ EJ Obiena ranks fourth in final tourney before Paris Olympics
It would have been a different story had Obiena pursued his original event in athletics which was the hurdles. But in his desire to gain an athletic scholarship, Obiena decided to take up pole vault instead.
That decision was apt, considering the event runs in the Obiena family. His father Emerson was a national pole vaulter with a silver medal from the 1993 Southeast Asian Games as one of his achievements
Obiena did get that athletic scholarship from Ateneo and University of Santo Tomas, but little did he knew that this sport would change his life.
That came sometime in 2014 when he had an encounter with legendary pole vaulter Sergey Bubka when the latter visited the Philippines where he discovered an opportunity to train in Italy to further hone his skills.
Obiena took that leap of faith that transformed him into a world-class Filipino athlete.
Under the tutelage of Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov, Obiena began being at the level of the world’s best, and in 2022 became the first Filipino medalist in the World Athletics Championships when he captured bronze in Eugene, Oregon.
Leap of faith
He levelled up the following year in 2023 where he took home a silver medal in the world championships in Budapest, and reached the coveted 6.0-meter mark during a competition in Norway.
Now, 2024 could be another banner year for Obiena where he could become just the third Filipino to win an Olympic medal alongside Simeon Toribio (men’s high jump) in 1932 and Miguel White (men’s 400m hurdles) in 1936.
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