EJ Obiena has a plan. Ten competitions. Four months. One destination.
The 30-year-old pole vaulter—once a perennial top-five fixture in the world rankings, now sitting at No. 13—is deep in training at the Centro Preparazione Olimpica in Formia, Italy, working to rebuild the form that made him one of the most dangerous vaulters on the planet. The outdoor season is coming. And Obiena intends to use every bit of it.
Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) secretary-general Jasper Tanhueco laid out the schedule: 10 competitions between June and September, culminating in the Nagoya Asian Games. It is, by design, a campaign—not just a calendar.
Obiena Runs the European Gauntlet
The gauntlet opens June 7 in Stockholm with a Diamond League leg, followed by Oslo on June 10, Ostrava on June 16, and Hengelo on June 21. Obiena then heads to Paris for another Diamond League stop on June 26 before a brief rest in July, where he competes just twice—Budapest on July 14 and London on July 18. August offers a single outing in Lausanne on the 21st. The stretch run hits hard: the Diamond League Final in Brussels on September 4–5 and the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest on September 13—before Nagoya.
The schedule is loaded but not reckless.
“Ideally, I’ll just do the Diamond Leagues,” Obiena said, “but with my situation, probably a few more competitions I would do.”
Quality Over Quantity This Time
Obiena’s situation requires some unpacking. Earlier this year, Obiena went quantity-over-quality—nine meets in three months before the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland last March. He was everywhere: third in Dusseldorf, first in Cottbus, fifth in Caen, first in Tianjin, third in Karlsruhe, fourth in Paris, sixth in Lievin, sixth in Torun, first in Berlin. His best jump was 5.78 meters. He finished ninth at the World Indoors.
That was the price of volume. He hasn’t competed since.
The rest was intentional—a chance to recover, grow stronger, and arrive at the outdoor season fresh. His back, which had been a nagging concern, is now fully healed. The outdoor schedule reflects lessons learned: only twice in July, once in August, with breathing room built in between.
Obiena will contest 5 of the Diamond League’s 14 legs this season. DL leg winners earn between $10,000 and $20,000, with the Final paying $30,000 to $60,000. The top 6 men’s pole vaulters from the 14 legs advance to the Final—a cutoff Obiena will be chasing. He’ll also compete in 3 of the 11 Gold Tour meets, the highest tier of the World Athletics Continental Tour.
Obiena Sets Sights on Bigger THings
The biggest carrot, though, hangs at the end: the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, a new biennial event debuting this September and reserved for only the top eight vaulters in the world—determined by world ranking, the 2025 world champion, 2026 Diamond League winners, and the 2024 Olympic champion. The winner takes home $150,000. World No. 1 Armand Mondo Duplantis is the event’s ambassador.
Obiena wants in. Getting there from No. 13 will take exactly the kind of sustained, consistent run his outdoor schedule demands.
PATAFA president Terry Capistrano recently flew to Formia to check in on Obiena and his team—Ukraine coach Vitaly Petrov and physiotherapist Christian Ferdinandi. The visit, by all accounts, was encouraging.
“Everyone’s upbeat,” Capistrano said. “We all know what to do moving forward as far as the direction is concerned. Everyone’s on the same page.”
Ten competitions. Four months. One destination.
The road back starts in Stockholm.
