Door closes, opens for EJ

MANILA, Philippines — Pole vaulter EJ Obiena failed to earn the required qualifying points for a ticket to the Diamond League Final in Brussels on Sept. 4-5 but while the door closed, another opened as he cleared 5.90m in Zurich last Thursday to book a ticket to the World Athletics Championships in Beijing on Sept. 11-19 next year.

There’s one more meet that Obiena is hoping to qualify for and it’s the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest on Sept. 11-13, leading to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games where he’s the defending champion. But to make the eight-man lineup, Obiena had to jump 5.97m and win the ISTAF Berlin meet last night. Results were still not available at presstime. In the 10-man start list with Obiena were included World No. 5 Sam Kendricks, No. 11 KC Lightfoot, World No. 14 Bo Kanda Lita Baehre and No. 15 Seifeldin Abdelsalam. Obiena is now ranked No. 12.

“Diamond League Final is closed because it’s point-collected during the season,” said Obiena. “I missed the Shanghai, Oslo, Stockholm, Monaco and Paris legs so I didn’t get too many points. For Ultimate, I still have a chance if I jump 5.97m and win (in Berlin). I’ve got to compensate for not having points from the World Championships last year and a bad indoor outing this year.”

World No. 1 Armand Duplantis led six qualifiers to the Diamond League Final with 38 points. Obiena was No. 13 in qualifying points with only four. Wildcards may be given to athletes who are reigning Olympic, world or Diamond League champions, world record holders or top-ranked performers.

Obiena said he’s going for broke in Berlin. “I believe I have it in me,” he said. “I just need to put it all together that day. Only eight will make it to the Ultimate and while there’s a wildcard, they won’t be giving it to me.” Cracking the Ultimate cut is a long shot but Obiena isn’t giving up without a fight.

Qualifying period for the 2027 World Athletics Championships is from Aug. 23 to Aug. 22 next year. Four days after the start of the reckoning, Obiena hit the qualifying mark of 5.90m. The target quota is 36 athletes. In the previous Championships in Tokyo two years ago, the qualifying mark was 5.80m. There were 35 qualifiers and in the competition, Obiena failed to enter the 12-man final.