BY BONG PEDRALVEZ
LIKE what Rio Olympic gold medalist Tiago Braz of Brazil did for him, pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena doesn’t see training partners Huang Bokai of China and Hussain Al-Hizam of Saudi Arabia as threats but as friends he can tutor while building up his campaign for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“No, I don’t see Huang or Hussain as threats but rather as friends as we train and I am there to help them with our coach Vitali Petrov as I prepare for the Paris Olympics,” Obiena said yesterday after receiving his P5 million bonus from the Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry Inc.
With Filipino-Chinese business titans coming out in full force, businessman-sportsman Cecilio Pedro awarded the check to Obiena at the FFCCCII headquarters in Binondo. Obiena won the country’s first gold medal in record-breaking fashion in the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games.
Feeling generous, FFCCCII honorary president Francis Chua added P1 million more to the pole vaulter’s growing cash incentives.
Now totaling P14 million and growing, Obiena’s incentives includes P3 million from his high school alma mater Chiang Kai Shek College, P3 million from the Philippine Sports Commission under Republic Act 10699, the incentives law; plus P1 million each from CKSC board chairman Johnson Tan and Oishi boss Anson Chan.
Obiena said he intends to spread the wealth with the rest of his coaching staff led by famed Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov, who also trained compatriot and former world and Olympic men’s pole vault champion Sergey Bubka.
Obiena intends to emulate what former training partner Braz did to him in the past with his Chinese and Saudi training partners, who took the silver and bronze, respectively, at the Hangzhou Asiad.
“When Hussain was tearing up after his performance, I tried to console him because I knew he felt bad after losing to Huang,” said Obiena. “They are not threats to me but friends.”
Left unsaid was the fact that Obiena, the world No. 2 pole vaulter, faces a big challenge in reigning world and Olympic champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden.
Deciding to concentrate more on his Olympic preparations than competitions next year, Obiena, whose Asian and national record is six meters flat, is keenly aware that he needs to close the gap on Duplantis, who holds the world record of 6.23 meters set at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon last month.
He also revealed he will start his first training camp in December in an indoor facility with heaters since it will be winter in Europe by that time.
The last camp will be held near the French capital where he hopes to acclimatize and adjust before he competes in the quadrennial meet.
This early, Obiena is confident he has what it takes to land a podium finish in France.
“I think it’s pretty good (podium chances), pero mahaba pa. A lot to go, there are a lot of things that can change but I’m pretty confident and I think we have better odds than the last time,” Obiena told reporters last Sunday at the Milky Way Cafe in Makati.
Since his stint in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the 27-year-old has improved by leaps and bounds and has risen to No. 2 as of this month. — With Abby Toralba
