It is good to depart from our typical topics to focus on good news every once in a while, God knows we need it.
Which is why for today we ask you to look away from the squabbles in politics as well as the problems brought on by the pandemic in our country to look at the field of sports.
While we were blessed to have our first Olympic gold medal this year, something else happened in the sporting world that again brought glory to the Philippines, as seemingly insignificant as this may appear to others.
We are talking about Filipino pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena who won the gold medal of the men’s pole vault competition of the 2021 International Golden Roof Challenge in Innsbruck, Austria, last Sunday, after clearing 5.93 meters.
He beat Matt Ludwig of the United States and Ersu Sasma of Turkey who both ended with 5.60 meters.
But Obiena didn’t just win the gold; he also set a new Asian record. Until then the Asian record for pole vaulting was 5.92 meters, a high bar set by Igor Potapovich of Kazakhstan in 1998 which has not been challenged since.
“I wanted this so bad... I couldn’t have done it without all of you guys,” Obiena was quoted as saying after his feat.
Of course, there will be other Filipinos who will dismiss this achievement as nothing of note, nothing really to make a big deal out of, perhaps because the event is not as prestigious as the Olympics or because it really doesn’t benefit them in any way at all.
To that we say that Obiena didn’t just bring renown to himself, but to the entire country as well. In the highly competitive world of sports, records are usually just beaten a few years after they established, so for one record to stand for 23 years is no easy feat.
And considering that this record was for all of Asia, the largest continent in the world, that made it something else entirely.
And now one of our own just beat such a long-standing record. Obiena pretty much set the bar high, literally, for someone else looking to eclipse his record.
We offer our congratulations to Obiena for his achievement and thank him for showing us that even in these darkest of times there are still events that are worth telling and taking pride in.