Saving best for last

It was a bold display of guts, courage and gumption. EJ Obiena had clinched the gold with a jump of 5.75m in pole vault at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games last Tuesday night but didn’t want to end the event on a bittersweet note after missing twice at 5.80m. There was one jump left for Obiena. He didn’t need to go for a last run. First place was sealed. His closest competitors China’s Yao Jie and Li Chenyong had bombed out.

Still, walking away with the gold on a tailspin didn’t seem proper for the former World No. 2 pole vaulter. So he bit the bullet and went for broke. Obiena declined his last attempt at 5.80m then skipped 5.85m and 5.90m. The gambit was risky. He had struggled at 5.80m, aborting his first jump and bumping the bar off the rack on his second. What were the chances that Obiena would jump higher if he couldn’t crack 5.80m? And he had just one try for a final jump.

But Obiena trusted in his instincts. Forget 5.80m, forget 5.85m, forget 5.90m. He wanted to make history under rainy conditions. Obiena set the Asian Games record of 5.90m in Hangzhou in 2023 and looked to establish a new mark. The bar was perched at 5.91m and on his last try, Obiena cleared it cleanly. The crowd went crazy.

The biggest disappointment was World No. 15 Seifeldin Abdelsalam of Qatar who was touted to seriously challenge Obiena for the gold but failed to clear 5.60m thrice. World No. 20 Chenyong flubbed his first try at 5.75m then went straight to 5.80m only to crash out after two failed bids. World No. 43 Yao took only one attempt to clear 5.35m, 5.50m, 5.60m and 5.70m but couldn’t jump 5.75m thrice. Obiena, now World No. 11, closed it out with a bang.

“Take a bow, EJ,” said PSC chairman Patrick Gregorio. “First thing I told (PATAFA president Terry (Capistrano) was let’s drink highball. First thing I told EJ was I’m so proud of you, heart of a champion. I was just a bit nervous when he went for the record but I wasn’t surprised he raised the bar.”

Obiena’s adviser Jim Lafferty said the decision to go straight to 5.91m was pure guts. “It was safer to just make 5.80m then gain three new shots,” he said. “He passed to 5.91m knowing he had to be perfect and nailed it. We had talked earlier and he was mentally prepared that once he won, he would go higher.”

Lafferty said it was a clutch performance. “I was unsure if he would take his final attempt at 5.80m to get three more attempts at 5.91m for the record,” he said. “When he passed to 5.91m with only one attempt left, I was somewhat surprised but how many times has EJ delivered when he had to win with one jump?”

The next Asian Games will be in 2031 in Doha as the Olympic Council of Asia has approved a proposal to schedule the event in odd-numbered years to move a year after the Olympics. Obiena will be 35 by then and it’s not sure if he’ll still be jumping. What’s certain is he’s got his sights on the 2028 LA Olympics and Obiena will be fired up to land that elusive podium finish.