YOU CAN SEE IT in his eyes and by his sheer determination that Asian pole vault champion EJ Obiena is moving heaven and earth to get back to his old deadly form.
And after his gold medal-clinching 5.91-meter (m) effort in the Golden Sand in Miedzyzdroje, Poland on Tuesday, the 30-year-old Tondo, Manila native is screaming to the world that he’s back to business.
“I haven’t been up here for some time,” said Mr. Obiena on social media.
The World No. 13 was, of course, referring to the 5.90-m plateau, which he last breached two years ago in the Paris Olympics.
That same year he also registered 5.97 m in another event in another city in Poland, which happened to be the highest that season.
Interestingly, it came a year after he came through with the best performance of his life — a 6 m in the Bergen Jump Challenge in Norway that earned him the distinction as the first Asian to eclipse that mark.
And with the breathtaking pace he has been showing lately, expect Mr. Obiena to reprise it, if not surpass it all together, soon.
But for now, he just wanted to relish his recent feat.
“Happy to finally be back over a 90 bar,” he said.
There was also an added importance to his latest performance — it came just around a month before he defends his title in the Asian Games (Asiad) in Nagoya, Japan.
Incidentally, Mr. Obiena won the psychological battle against a fast-rising 21-year-old talent from Qatar in Seifeldin Abdelsalam, who many think could be the biggest thorn to his title defense in Nagoya, after the latter finished a distant second with a 5.75 m.
American Cole Walsh took the bronze with a 5.70 m after edging via countback Saudi Arabian Hussain Al-Hizam, another potential Asiad foe.
It was also Mr. Obiena’s eighth golden effort this year. — Joey Villar