Obiena stuns Duplantis, continues gold romp

MANILA, Philippines — To reach the pinnacle of men’s pole vault, one must slay the dragon of the sport – Swedish Armand Duplantis.

Enter EJ Obiena the dragon slayer.

On a night when the stars finally aligned, Obiena accomplished what he and the rest of the world couldn’t achieve in recent years as he brought down the mighty Duplantis with a magnificent victory in the Memorial van Damme in Brussels, Belgium yesterday.

While the winning clearance of 5.91 meters, a feat he completed on his third try, wasn’t eye-popping, it was all the World Championship bronze medalist needed to mow down the great Duplantis in one of the biggest, if not the biggest, upsets in recent times.

And when the giant-sized result finally sank in, Obiena knew history has been written – the world No. 3 has defeated the world No. 1.

“It took a lot of luck, a good day and some excellent calls to beat Mondo today,” said Obiena, whose best effort at present stands at 5.94m.

“It´s always my goal to win, but I definitely have the magic number of 6m on my mind. That’s what I´m training for and I really think that I’m capable of jumping that height. It’s only a matter of time and some good circumstances,” he added.

It was the fourth gold and fifth straight podium finish for the Asian record-holder in the last 11 days.

His other triumphs came in the Stabhochsprung meet last Aug. 23 in Jockgrim, True Athletes Classics last Aug. 28 in Leverkusen and St. Wendel City Jump last Aug. 31 in Sankt Wendel all in Germany.

Obiena had a bronze in the Athletissima in Lausanne, Switzerland in between his golden juggernaut in an event dominated by the Olympic and world champion and world record-holder.

This time, Obiena served Duplantis a dish best served cold – vengeance.

Thanks to his recent feat, Obiena ended Duplantis’ long, indomitable streak of 20 straight victories that was equally highlighted by the latter’s triumphs in last year’s Tokyo Games and last July’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Obiena may have caught Duplantis on a bad day as the latter couldn’t even clear the six-meter mark, a plateau that the Swede had made a habit of effortlessly breaching including that momentous event in Eugene where he set a new world record of 6.21m.

“I did a lot of things poorly technically,” said Duplantis.