EJ Obiena opens indoor jump season with a silver
Sports/Games

EJ Obiena opens indoor jump season with a silver

Jan 26, 2023, 6:53 AM
Nicole Pulido

Nicole Pulido

Writer

World No. 3 EJ Obiena falls short of a gold medal in Germany after failing to jump 5.82m in three attempts.

World No. 3 pole vaulter EJ Obiena kickstarted his 2023 indoor season on a winning note as he placed second in the International Jump Meeting Cottbus at the Lausitz-Arena in Cottbus, Germany Wednesday, Jan. 25 (early Thursday in Manila).

Clearing 5.77m on his first try was good enough for a silver medal for the 2020 Tokyo Olympian, just behind United States’ Sam Kendricks who cleared 5.82m in just one attempt.

He did not have his dream start as he needed all three tries in order to clear his first height of 5.50m after opting to skip 5.30m and 5.40m, PhilStar reported.

Far from Obiena’s personal record and national and Asian record of 5.94m, the 27-year-old shifted his focus and made the succeeding heights of 5.67m and 5.77m seem easy after clearing both heights in his initial attempts.

He then tried clearing 5.82m to match Kendricks’ record, however, the Filipino vaulter failed to keep in stride after three unsuccessful jumps.

Belgium's Ben Broeders had a slight edge from hometown bet Gillian Ladwig who both posted 5.72m but won the bronze medal via a countback as reported by Manila Bulletin.

The competition was also joined by American Matt Ludwig, Dutch Rutger Koppelaar and Polish Piotr Lisek, who finished with similar heights of 5.60m for a tie in fifth; China’s Huang Bokai with 5.50m; Germany’s Bo Kanda Lita Baehre with 5.40m and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Onufriyev with 5.30m.

Obiena will have a chance to improve his performance following his desire to breach 6m during this season as he prepares for different high-ranking tournaments this season which includes the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships on Feb. 10 to 12 in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Tags: #polevault, #internationalcompetition, #athletics


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