ERNEST John Obiena staved off the challenge of Belgium’s Ben Broeders last Tuesday night to rule the men’s pole vault event of the Copernicus Cup with a season-best matching jump of 5.81 meters at the Torun Arena in Torun, Poland.
Like Obiena a Tokyo Olympic Games veteran, Broeders appeared to have the slight edge when he cleared 5.41, 5.61 and 5.71 meters on his first three tries while Obiena struggled at 5.61, needing three jumps to clear it, but had no such problems at 5.41 and 5.71 meters.
But the Belgian, who was cut in the Tokyo Olympics elimination round, failed to clear 5.81 meters while Obiena cleared the bar on his third attempt to clinch his second title this season and pocket $3,000 (roughly P153,000).
Broeders took runner-up honors, relegating Rio Olympic Games gold medalist Thiago Braz of Brazil to third on the countback.
The event was witnessed by Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov, who mentors Obiena and Braz at the World Athletics elite training camp in Formia, Italy.
The win was Obiena’s second in five indoor meets, counting his win in the Orlen Cup in Lodz, Poland last Feb. 11. He bounced back from his mediocre outing at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Lievin, France last week where he finished 10th out of 12 entries with a jump of 5.61 meters.
He opened his season on Feb. 4 by placing fourth, clearing 5.70 meters at the ISTAF Indoor Berlin meet in Berlin, Germany, and wound up eighth with a similar jump of 5.70 meters at the International Pole Vault Invitational in Uppsala, Sweden last Feb. 9.
Obiena, currently ranked No. 5 in the World Athletics rankings, has earned $6,750 (P345,000) in three weeks of competitions based on the cash prize breakdown of the World Athletics indoor tour.
Obiena earlier said on his Facebook page that he would compete in the world indoor championships set March 18 to 20 in Belgrade, Serbia.
