Obiena vaults to World No. 2 as Ubas tops the Finland event
IT was a glorious day for Philippine athletics.
Coincidentally happening on the same day, star pole-vaulter EJ Obiena and long jumper Janry Ubas accomplished separate feats straight from Europe that should reverberate back home.
For Mr. Obiena, his breakthrough came in the form of the World No. 2 ranking, which he snatched from American Chris Nilsen after the Asian record holder from the Philippines amassed 1432 points as against the latter’s 1428.
The Paris Olympics-bound Mr. Obiena moved closer to Swedish titan Armand Duplantis, the world and Olympic champion and record-holder who remained untouched and unflappable at the sport’s Mt. Everest with an unreachable 1569.
It was the highest ranking attained by any Filipino in the sport and it came just a little over a month after he breached the six-meter plateau in Bergen, Norway in becoming the 28th man to do so in the planet.
“Good morning, Philippines. Your very own skinny kid from Tondo, alumni of CKSC (Chiang Kai Shek College) and UST, is now World Number Two,” posted Mr. Obiena on his Facebook account.
“Thank you to everyone who made this possible, and my deepest gratitude to those who went to war so that I could continue this dream. This is not just my accomplishment alone, but everyone’s.”
This dreamer dares to dream,” he added.
It was made sweeter by Mr. Ubas topping the Motonet Grand Prix in Lappeenranta, Finland Wednesday night that bolstered his Olympic and World Championships bids.
The Southeast Asian Games gold winner leapt 7.78m in besting Finnish Kasperi Vehmaa and Aussie Zane Branco, who had 7.75, and 7.70m and settled for the silver and bronze, respectively.
The triumph earned Mr. Ubas, now ranked 53rd in the world, 60 precious ranking points that bolstered not only his chances of advancing to next year’s Paris Games but also the World tilt set Aug. 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary where he hoped to join Mr. Obiena and Asian Championships women’s 400m hurdles champion Robyn Brown.
The proud son from Misamis Oriental had also gained 90 points for his seventh-place finish in the Asian tilt in Bangkok, Thailand a few days back.
He would be seeking to earn more ranking points as he wades into battle in the 16th Triveneto Meeting on Sunday in Trieste, Italy and the Internationales Stuttgarter Leichtathletik-Meeting on July 29 in Stuttgart, Germany. — Joey Villar
