A SILVER worth its weight in gold.
This is what pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena must have felt of the silver medal he won in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary last Sunday after revealing on his Facebook page yesterday that he was stricken with COVID-19 two weeks before the meet.
After setting a new milestone by winning a silver medal with a jump of six meters flat that eclipsed his bronze medal finish in last year’s meet where he jumped 5.91 meters in Eugene, Oregon, Obiena, 27, uploaded a personal video he taped beforehand in the event he missed competing in the Hungarian capital.
In the video lasting one minute and 58 seconds, Obiena disclosed that he would not have posted it if, due to ill health, he had skipped the competition at the 36,000-seat National Athletics Center that drew elite track and field athletes from all over the world.
“We are about two weeks out for qualification for the worlds. I haven’t been able to train pretty good since probably Friday. We’re still getting a positive test from the COVID test.
This video will not come out if I don’t qualify for the finals. This video will not come out if I don’t podium,” he said.
“Right now, it’s a question if I will be physically ready, whether I will be able to compete with one of the best (Armand Duplantis) and the best in the world. Just praying (to) God there’s a reason why this is happening,” added Obiena, who looked on the verge of tears.
“This is a challenge and right now I am just trying to do everything that I can to be on that pole vault area come that day and yeah, hopefully there will be a reason for this video to come out,” he added.
“It has been mentally taxing right now knowing that I might just have the best season of my career but come the major championship unfortunately I got sick, I got COVID,” he rued. “It’s tough so we’re moving forward. We will do what we can come the 23rd, and, hopefully, the 26th.”
Displaying a huge fighting heart, Obiena recovered in time to achieve an even better finish while holding the distinction of being the only Filipino campaigner to win a medal in the world competition.
He noted in the accompanying reflection with the video that his latest ordeal showed that life was “like a rose.”
“Life is like a rose. Undoubtedly it is. It is beautiful, but it also comes with thorns. Those painful pricks that can shake us up, cause us to drop the rose. Cause us to bleed,” he explained, sounding poetic.
“When we let the thorns get the best of us, we lose sight of the beauty. We become victims. And we can’t allow this to happen,” he stressed.
“I filmed this video when I was in the depths of pain. Thankfully I snapped out of it. I refused to be the victim. I accepted the rose, thorns and all! And decided to take matters into my own hands,” Obiena said.
“It’s strange to contemplate, but perhaps I would never have silver-medaled without the thorns of COVID and being sick. Thorns toughen you up. Thorns make you appreciate the beauty of the rose,” he added of the lessons learned from the experience. “Lick your wounds, appreciate the beauty of the rose, and take control.”
