AFTER a secretive training camp at the Normandy Sports Center before the opening of the Paris Olympics, pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena was set to check in at the Olympic Village yesterday, three days before the start of the qualifiers of his pet event at the Stade de France on Saturday.
“I am still alive and kicking. I think I am in a better headspace. Physically, I hope it (the injury) is better. I think it is going in the right direction,” Obiena said in an interview last Tuesday with an online news service. “The plan is to go to Paris on the 31st.
“It (the injury) definitely hampered my training,” the Pinoy pole vault ace said of the injury that he declined to describe but made public on his social media accounts last July 20.
“I don’t want to put out there just yet. I mean, it’s not life-threatening or anything, but it’s just the athlete’s life. It’s just the timing of it. It’s just very bad and with the preparations not being ideal,” he added. “But…we’re doing everything that we can every day.”
Not divulging his injury was his way of not giving anything that his rivals, including reigning Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden, might want to exploit.
“For sure, I’m definitely not the only one [injured]. I’m pretty sure there are also other people going through something similar. It’s now all about getting to the starting line and making sure I’m able to compete. I think that is all that matters, and then make it to the finals,” he stressed. “When you’re in the finals, it’s a derby out there and let’s see.
“I just need my body to stay in one piece. That’s all I need to get into the final. And after that, all the pain and all these problems can come back and I’ll deal with it,” the world No. 2 pole vaulter, a member of the elite six-meter club, said.
He waxed philosophical about the physical challenges he was facing with a few days to go before he vaults into action, carrying the burden as one of the country’s top medal prospects in the centennial jubilee of the Philippine participation in the modern Olympics.
“Like I said, I’m still in one piece so it could have been a lot worse. I guess I’ve also been very lucky this year,” Obiena noted. “I’m still doing everything that I can to be in the best shape I can be. It’s not optimal, but it’s not like it’s the end of the world. I believe so and I still believe in my chances.
