EJ Obiena's camp to explore legal action after doping allegation

The camp of Filipino pole vault ace EJ Obiena is mulling options, including possible legal action, amidst an allegation of doping leveled against him on social media.

In a Facebook post, the world no. 2 Obiena cried foul over an accusation directed at him in a social media comment by Anais Lavillenie, who also happens to be the wife of world no. 43 Renaud Lavillenie of France.

"I want to remain classy and dignified on this subject. All I will say is I am disappointed, angry and feel wronged by these statements," Obiena said in his own post on Monday.

"I will let the story evolve while my team explores the many angles including legal. I guess this is part of the price you pay when you win."

In a post by Vaulter Magazine on Facebook, Lavillenie commented that "Obiena doped and it'll fall like Braz. Same coach, same plan, same objective."

She was pertaining to former pole vault Olympic champion Thiago Braz of Brazil, who was provisionally suspended back in July after testing positive for the presence of a banned substance. Braz defeated Renaud Lavillenie for the gold medal in 2016 Rio Olympics.

Braz and Obiena are training partners and are both under the tutelage of pole vault coach Vitaly Petrov.

GMA News Online has reached out to Obiena for further details but has yet to gain response as of writing.

Meanwhile, Senator Bong Go urged Anais to 'substantiate' her comment and 'not resort to ruining someone’s reputation on social media', while adding that Obiena, an elite athlete that has won multiple titles for the Philippines, would know the proper process for this kind of matter. 

"We should not tolerate such baseless accusations. After all, professionalism is part of sportsmanship," Go said in a statement.

The 27-year-old Obiena is fresh from a golden run in the 2023 Asian Games in China, delivering the country's first gold medal in this year's Asiad edition. He already left the Philippines as he starts his preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

—Bea Micaller/JMB, GMA Integrated News