By ADRIAN STEWART CO
MANILA – In a rare opportunity, Filipino pole vaulter and world No. 3 Ernest John “EJ” Obiena was able to beat No. 1 seeded and world champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden.
The 6-foot-2 Obiena, a 2020 Tokyo Olympics campaigner, pulled off a huge stunner and captured the gold in the Brussels Diamond League on Saturday in Belgium.
Obiena managed to unseat Duplantis after clearing 5.91 meters on his third and final attempt. The Swiss had an off-night. He could not match the height to settle for silver medal with 5.81 meters.
“Made a core memory today,” Obiena wrote on his Facebook page after the match. “First Diamond League Athletics win here in Allianz Memorial Van Damme with 5.91m.”
Duplantis, for his part, said his rare defeat to Obiena was a huge wakeup call. He vowed to bounce back in the upcoming tournaments and in Diamond League next year.
“I did a lot of things poorly technically. It’s rare for me to jump the way I did. Maybe I needed a bit of a wake-up call. I gotta come back next year and do something more special for the people that came out,” said Duplantis.
It was the fourth gold medal performance and five podium finish of the former University of Santo Tomas Growling Tigers pole vaulter in the last two weeks.
Obiena first captured a gold medal in the Stabhoch Spring Meeting in Jockgrim last August 23 before settling for a bronze medal finish when he lost to Duplantis in the Athletissima event in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Last week, the 26-year-old Obiena took home back-to-back gold medals in the True Athletes Classics in Leverkusen and in the St. Wendel City Jump, both in Germany.
Obiena will next compete in the ISTAF 2022 in Berlin, Germany on Sunday, Sept. 4 (Monday in the Philippines) and at Golden Fly event in Schaan, Liechtenstein on Sept. 11./PN
