ERNEST John “EJ” Obiena finished fifth at the IAAF Diamond League athletics meet in Zurich, Switzerland on Friday (Manila time) but the Filipino Olympian pole vaulter punched a ticket to the World Athletics Championships next year in Beijing, China.
Obiena’s best jump in Zurich was 5.90 meters (m), tied for fourth place with Chris Nilsen of the United States. He, however, dropped to 5th overall after the countback.
Despite the setback, this was Obiena's second best jump of the season next to his 5.91-meter performance in Poland 10 days ago. Obiena’s personal best is 6.0m which is also the Asian record.
Swedish-American world record holder and reigning Olympic champion Armand Duplantis topped the event at 6.25 m.
Emmanouil Karalis of Greece finished second with a national record height of 6.20 m.
Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen completed the podium after clearing 6.0 m.
Obiena’s performance in Zurich, however, was enough for him to clinch a spot in the World Athletics Championships. The qualifying mark for the event is 5.90 m.
“5.90m here in Zurich... Thank you @weltklassezurich for always hosting such a wonderful competition,” Obiena wrote on his Instagram account on Friday.
“With this I also qualified for next year’s World Championship,” he added.
The 30-year-old Obiena is also set to defend his Asian Games gold medal in Nagoya, Japan next month.
Duplantis has truly dominated the pole vault since 2019, winning two Olympic golds and three world titles. Also a four-time world indoor champion, he recently picked up a fourth European crown.
Beside the burgeoning medal cabinet, the 26-year-old has also set the world record 15 times.
It currently stands at a towering 6.31 m and Duplantis has regular attempts at bettering that mark, normally after he has wrapped up another victory on the circuit.
But in recent competition, Karalis has proved his worth as a rival to the US-born Swede.
Asked whether he was happy that his rivals were now regularly hitting the 6-m mark, Duplantis joked: "No! I just want to chill! "I just want to win, go home and take it easy." Speaking on the eve of the Diamond League meeting in Zurich, Duplantis then doffed his other cap, calling the competition "really fun".
"I think everybody really likes it. What's been really amazing to see is just how much the fans are getting behind it," he said.
"Everybody's really enjoying not only just seeing me get pushed really hard, but also everybody just jump really high and jump really well." Recent competition has seen Duplantis and Karalis captivate public interest, notably at the European championships in Birmingham and in the Diamond League.
"We had a great competition with Manolo (Karalis) and I in Birmingham, but then in Lausanne, I feel like it just kind of set a new precedent for our sport and our event," Duplantis said of the Diamond League meet last week.
Duplantis won the event in the Swiss city with a best of 6.21 m, while Karalis cleared 6.16 m.
Never before had a second-place finisher jumped so high as both men broke the previous meet record of 6.15m.
"It's really unheard of and unprecedented for our kind of event. It's been really fun," Duplantis said.
In Zurich, Duplantis (6.25 m) and Karalis (6.20 m) put on another show.
After Zurich, athletes head to the Diamond League finals in Brussels on Sept. 4-5 and the inaugural season-ending World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest a week later. WITH REPORTS FROM AFP
