EJ Obiena underscored his pole vault dominance in this part of the world on Tuesday, winning gold in the 20th Asian Games with another spectacular performance—this time at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium.
The 30‑year‑old beat out 11 other athletes on his way to back‑to‑back Asian Games gold, then punctuated his conquest by setting the pole vault record in the quadrennial showpiece at 5.91m. With it, he also added another gold medal to his 2026 season, pushing his total this year to nine championships altogether.
How EJ Obiena Won Gold Again
Obiena, like most others on Tuesday, started off at 5.50m and cleared it easily. He then skipped 5.60 and went straight to 5.70, which he again cleared with no problem. By this time, the competition had dwindled to a four‑man race—Obiena, China’s Jie Yao and Chenyang Li, and Thailand’s Patsapong Amsamarng—as the other eight athletes couldn’t clear 5.60m.
Amsamarng was next to go, missing at 5.70 once and failing at 5.75m. The Tondo native then put more pressure on the Chinese pair by clearing 5.75 in one try. Yao failed to replicate the Filipino’s feat thrice, while Li missed once and then tried for 5.80m but muffed twice to hand Obiena the gold.
Curiously, the University of Santo Tomas alum had failed twice at 5.80m but was still assured of gold after Yao’s and Li’s muffed attempts. With one attempt left and the championship already his, Obiena raised the bar to 5.91 and went for the Asian Games record. He cleared it effortlessly, letting out a primal roar as he landed to the cheers of the Filipinos who braved the rain to watch their very own go for gold.
A Capstone to a Banner 2026
Obiena’s record‑setting Asian Games gold punctuates an impressive bounce‑back season for the veteran, who now has nine gold medals in total this year alone. Aside from his Asian Games triumph, Obiena also won gold in the 2026 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in China, ISTAF Indoor in Germany, ISTAF Berlin Outdoor, and Czesław Cybulski Memorial in Poland, among others.
He now also has both the Asian Games record in pole vault at 5.91m and the Asian record at 6.00m, which he set back in 2023 in Hungary.
