EJ Obiena needed one attempt in Poland to remind the pole vault world he still belongs at the top of it.
The world No. 13 cleared 5.91m to win gold and set a new meet record at the Golden Sand meet in Miedzyzdroje, his highest clearance in 49 competitions since he last touched 5.97m two years ago. He did it clean, on his first try, outclassing an 11-man field that included prospective Asian Games rivals Seifeldin Abdelsalam of Qatar, Hussein Asim Al Hizam of Saudi Arabia, and Masaki Ejima of Japan.
That single clearance did more than win him a gold medal. It bumped Obiena straight back up from World Athletics Continental Tour silver-level competition into Diamond League status, earning him an invitation to the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial at Silesian Stadium in Chorzow on August 23. This competion, named for the youngest Olympic hammer champion in history who died of a pulmonary embolism at 26 in 2009, is a considerable step up from where Obiena’s season stood after Doha this past June, where he finished eighth at just 5.42m.
The Filipino’s adviser, Jim Lafferty, didn’t undersell the significance of the jump either. “Now that he’s over 5.90m, the phone is ringing,” Lafferty told veteran scribe Quinito Henson, framing the return to Diamond League company as genuine forward momentum rather than a one-off result.
Room Still Left to Climb
What makes the clearance even more notable is the context surrounding it. Lafferty explained that Obiena was working with a shorter runway than ideal and a bigger pole, though not his biggest, and still cleared the bar completely clean on his first attempt.
The competition moved up in small five-centimeter increments from 5.55m, giving Obiena multiple passes to work with. He won the competition outright at 5.80m before pushing on to 5.91m, and even attempted 6.00m afterward—falling short only because his legs had tired and the runway wasn’t long enough to support the bigger jump. According to Lafferty, clearing 6.00m simply requires Obiena to shift his starting mark back roughly a foot; given a proper long runway, the right pole, and the right conditions, he believes that height is well within reach again.
Silver medalist Abdelsalam cleared 5.75m, while world No. 15 Cole Walsh of the United States took bronze at 5.70m on countback over Al Hizam, Obiena’s former training partner. Lafferty said the whole approach in Poland was designed with the Asian Games specifically in mind—putting real distance between Obiena and the challengers he’s likely to face there. PATAFA president Terry Capistrano echoed that same mix of confidence and caution after speaking with Obiena directly, describing him as upbeat and excited, but very aware of the strength of the field waiting at the Asian Games.
Where Obiena Stacks Up Globally
The 5.91m clearance doesn’t just mark a personal high point this season, it also places Obiena fifth among all vaulters worldwide this year, trailing only Mondo Duplantis’ 6.15m, Emmanouil Karalis’ 6.00m, Sondre Guttormsen’s 6.00m, and Chris Nilsen’s 5.92m. That’s rarefied company, and it puts Obiena within genuine striking distance of the sport’s very best heading into the rest of the season.
The world’s top eight vaulters are set to compete at the first-ever $10 million Ultimate Athletics Championships in Budapest on September 11–13, and Obiena, riding this new momentum, is hoping to crash a party that, not long ago, might have felt out of reach.
