Obiena vaults for glory at athletics worlds

MANILA, Philippines — EJ Obiena seeks to reaffirm his status as one of the elite pole vaulters as the World Athletics Championships fire off Saturday night in Tokyo.

Obiena, who won a silver medal in the 2023 edition and a bronze in 2022, plunges into action in the preliminary round at 6:05 p.m. (Manila time) in a star-studded field in Group A led by reigning titlist and world record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden.

The qualifying mark for Monday’s finals has been set at 5.80 meters or at least the best 12 out of the 36 competitors.

The 29-year-old Olympian, currently ranked seventh in the world, is expected to advance after previously vaulting to his season-best 5.80m three times this season, at the Orlen Copernicus Cup in Poland last February, the PATAFA Pole Vault Challenge last May and Meeting Madrid in Spain last July.

Recently, Obiena bagged the bronze at the World Athletics Continental Tour in Beijing with a 5.65m effort.

The Filipino ace is 12th in the order of the Group A preliminaries. World No. 1 and Olympic champ Duplantis, who set a new world record of 6.29m at the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix in Budapest last month, is vaulting fourth after world No. 4 Kurtis Marschall of Australia, No. 2 Emmanouil Karalis of Greece and No. 3 Sam Kendricks of the US.