POLE vaulter Ernest Obiena will have plenty of time to rest and make adjustments in his campaign for his first gold medal in the 19th Asian Games kicking off on Sept. 23 in Hangzhou, China, according to athletics chief Terry Capistrano.
“EJ will have a lot of time to adjust before the Asian Games because we instructed him to go directly to Hangzhou after he has competed in the Wanda Diamond League final in the US,” Capistrano, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association president, said.
Obiena formalized his entry to the Wanda Diamond League finale, the Prefontaine Classic set Sept. 16 and 17 at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon after jumping 5.92 meters to take the bronze medal in the final leg of the Wanda Diamond League series in Brussels, Belgium over the weekend.
He finished third behind Swedish ace Armand Duplantis, who easily took the gold with a jump of 6.10 meters, while two-time world champion and American veteran Sam Kendricks bagged the silver on the countback with a jump of 5.92 meters at the King Baudouin Stadium.
On top of earning a cash prize of $3,500 (about P198,000) for his efforts, Obiena wound up fourth overall in the Wanda League men’s pole vault standings with 26 points, with Duplantis (45), Kendricks (31) and compatriot Chris Nilsen (29) finishing 1-2-3, respectively.
Completing the cast of finalists were Australian Kurtis Marschall (17), who was No. 5, while KC Lightfoot and Belgian Ben Broeders were tied for sixth place with 10 points each.
Capistrano pointed out that the men’s pole vault event in the Asian Games will be held on Sept. 30, giving Obiena ample time to rest, recover and adjust to the anticipated nippy weather in the Chinese port city located 1,279 kilometers southeast of the Chinese capital of Beijing.
The lanky Pinoy athlete will be the top favorite to clinch the men’s pole vault gold medal when he competes at the sprawling 80,000-seat Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center stadium.
He will be seeking to underline his Asian supremacy in the event after winding up in seventh place with a jump of 5.30 meters in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In a sparkling season marked by a new Asian record of six meters flat and a silver medal at the recent world championships in Budapest, Hungary, Obiena is also bidding to break a 27-year-old gold medal dry spell in the Asian Games.
The last to win the gold in the continental showcase was the late legendary sprint queen Lydia de Vega, who claimed her second straight mint in the 100-meter dash after a thrilling down-the-wire duel with India’s famed P.T. Usha in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games.
Although the spotlight will undoubtedly fall on Obiena, Capistrano said that reigning Asian women’s 400-meter hurdles champion Robyn Lauren Brown is also is a potential medalist and should not be overlooked.
“Ever since Robyn won a silver in the Cambodia SEA Games and then a gold in the Asian championships, her mindset and outlook has totally changed. She now sports the aura of winner and is dead set of doing our country proud in winning a medal in the Asian Games,” he said.
Illustrious Elma Muros-Posadas was the country’s last podium finisher in Brown’s pet event with a bronze medal in the 1990 Beijing Asian Games.
