Glasgow battle an Olympic preview for Obiena, Duplantis

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ERNEST John Obiena will be up against his likely Olympic rivals, led by reigning world and Olympic champ Armand Duplantis of Sweden, when he competes in the men’s pole vault event on Sunday at the close of the 24th World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland.

In a virtual preview of the elite men’s pole vault cast in the Paris Olympic Games unfolding in July, eight of the 10 top-ranked athletes in the event will vie for honors at the 5,500-seat arena, the site of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2019 European indoor meet.

Aside from Duplantis and Obiena, who are ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the World Athletics world ratings, six others in the top 10 are seeing action in the competition.

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They are No. 3 American Chris Nilsen, the Tokyo Olympic Games silver medalist behind Duplantis three years ago; No. 4 Australian Kurtis Marschall, No. 5 American Sam Kendricks, No. 7 Thibaut Collet of France, No. 8 Dave Broeders of Belgium and No. 9 Piotr Lisek of Poland.

Also entered in the event are No. 13 Menno Vloon of the Netherlands, No. 17 Emmanuel Karalis of Greece, No. 18 Ersu Sasma of Turkey, No. 22 Austin Miller of the US and No. 23 Robert Sobera of Poland.

Whoever tops the event will have a psychological edge going to the Paris Olympic competitions scheduled Aug. 1 to 11 at the Stade de France, with the pole vault qualifiers set on Aug. 3 and the finals two days later.

Aside from eyeing a strong podium finish in the French capital, Obiena is seeking redemption after his lackluster finish in the Tokyo Summer Games, where he finished a lowly 11th in a tie with German Bo Kanda Lita Baehre with a jump of 5.70 meters.

He will go into the indoor world meet having won his first two competitions, ruling the Memorial Josip Gasparac in Osijek, Croatia and ISTAF Indoor Berlin meet in Berlin, Germany.

The lanky pole vaulter won’t be the only Filipino athlete seeing action in Glasgow, with Filipino-American and Olympic hopeful Lauren Hoffmann set to compete in the women’s 400-meter race on Friday, according to FILAM Sport’s Ed Lasquete.

“We have only Lauren Hoffmann entered in the 400 meters. It is not her specialty but competing there is a great accomplishment just the same,” Lasquete, a three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist and 1992 Barcelona Olympic veteran, said.

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