THOMASIAN pole vaulter EJ Obiena made history for the Philippines by bagging the silver medal in the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday, Aug. 27.
This marked the Philippines’s first-ever silver-medal finish in the tournament.
Obiena placed second after clearing 6.00 meters in two attempts, duplicating the Asian best he recorded in the Bergen Jump Challenge in Norway on June 10.
The World No. 3 pole vaulter cleared 5.55 meters in one attempt before surpassing the heights of 5.75 meters and 5.85 meters in two tries. He also cleared 5.90 meters and 5.95 meters in his first attempts.
Sweden’s Armand Duplantis defended his throne after eclipsing 6.05 meters and 6.10 meters with one-attempt clearances. He raised the bar to 6.23 meters, two centimeters higher than his personal and world record last year, but missed all of his attempts.
Australia’s Kurtis Marschall and United States’ Christopher Nilsen shared the bronze medal with identical 5.95-meter clearances.
This is Obiena’s second podium finish in two appearances in the World Athletics Championships after placing third in 2022.
Obiena is the world’s No. 3 pole vaulter with 1399 points as of the Aug. 8 rankings. Ernest Martin G. Tuazon
