OLYMPIC pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena continued to flaunt his form after notching his seventh gold in the 2026 season.
Obiena cleared 5.83 meters (m) at the Stabhochsprung Meeting in Jockgrim, Germany, to tally his fourth gold in the outdoor season.
“[It] was far from a smooth competition and some struggles during warm-up and earlier bars, but happy to scrape an 80 bar. We continue to work and now a few trainings in before we go again,” he wrote on his social media account on Thursday morning.
Seifeldin Abdelsalam of Qatar settled for silver after clearing 5.83 m in his last try, while Obiena swiftly crossed the bar in just one go.
Ersu Sasma of Turkey completed the podium with 5.77 m.
Before this tournament, the 30-year-old flyer came from an impressive silver medal finish in Meeting Madrid in Spain, where he tallied 5.85 m, posting his season-best performance.
Obiena came off a gold medal win on July 31 as he crossed the 5.76-m mark in the Halberstadter Hohenflug.
This year, Obiena opened the 2026 season with a gold in his indoor meet at the International Springer-Meeting Cottbus in Germany, clearing 5.77 m on Jan. 28. He shared the gold with Menno Vloon of the Netherlands.
He proceeded to top the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tianjin, China, on Feb. 7, snatching his first-ever Asian Indoor title with a 5.70-m mark, followed by a gold medal in ISTAF Indoor Berlin in Germany with 5.78 m on March 6.
In the outdoor season, he first copped the gold at the Czesław Cybulski Memorial in Poland at 5.72 m on June 29.
On July 1, he made a new stadium record in the Raiffeisen Austrian Open in Austria, finishing gold at 5.75 m.
Obiena, currently ranked World No. 14, reached his peak form in 2023 after placing World No. 2 behind Armand Duplantis.
