Silver for Obiena

MANILA, Philippines — World No. 13 pole vaulter EJ Obiena greeted the outdoor season with a podium finish at the Flight Circus Dusseldorf, an athletics continental tour bronze level competition, last Sunday and will next face the big guns in the Doha Diamond League on Friday.

Obiena, 30, is battling to regain the No. 2 ranking he held in 2023 and work his way to a third Olympic stint in Los Angeles in 2028. Under new Polish coach Marcin Szczepanski, Obiena took the silver medal with a jump of 5.74m in Dusseldorf. He failed to clear 5.83m twice and 5.90m once, finishing second to World No. 14 Chris Nilsen who posted 5.83m. World No. 28 Seifeldin Abdelsalam of Qatar placed third at 5.65m. Others in the 10-man field were World No. 16 Cole Walsh of USA, No. 19 Bo Kanda Lia Baehre of Germany and No. 26 Kreiss Valters of Latvia.

In Doha, the competition will be held at the 45,857-seat Khalifa International Stadium which has a roof that shelters over 70 percent of capacity. Expected to compete are World No. 1 Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and No. 2 Emmanouil Karalis of Greece.

Obiena said the Dusseldorf conditions were testy. “A bit windy, gusty winds so tough conditions but it’s OK,” said Obiena. “Good season opener and next stop is Doha.” Obiena’s Dubai-based sports patron Jim Lafferty said he’ll travel to Doha for the Diamond League event. “Good start for EJ,” he noted. “EJ was packing in Formia all day the day before so he was dead tired but to get second was pretty impressive. I’m proud of him.”

Obiena and China’s No. 15 Bokai Huang are the only Asians in the world’s top 20. Next on the ladder are No. 23 Li Chenyang of China, Abdelsalam and No. 39 Patsapong Amsam-Ang of Thailand.