Obiena bags silver in Madrid pole vault tilt

MANILA, Philippines — It seems EJ Obiena is slowly returning to form. 

Obiena brought home the silver medal in the Meeting Madrid 2026 in Spain as he tallied a season-best 5.85 meters. 

He finished second behind Germany’s Bo Kanda Lita Baehre, who posted a personal best 5.90 meters.

Portugal’s Pedro Buaro finished third with a similar height of 5.85 meters, but fell to bronze due to countback.

After Baehre cleared 5.90 meters with ease, Obiena skipped the same distance as Buaro missed all three of his attempts.

Obiena, though, was unable to clear all three of his attempts at 5.95 meters, giving the victory to Baehre.

The German likewise failed to clear 5.95 meters. 

The Filipino Olympian has cleared at least 5.80 meters in his past three tournaments this July.

Obiena is currently ranked 14th in the world for pole vault.