EJ Obiena camp asserts pole vaulter is clean, shares lie detection test results

The camp of EJ Obiena asserted that the Filipino Olympian and pole vaulter is clean, debunking the allegation made by the wife of French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, Anais, that the pole vault world no. 2 doped.

In a virtual press conference on Thursday, Obiena's mentor James Lafferty detailed why the Asian Games gold medalist is clean.

First, Lafferty said Obiena already underwent 34 doping tests since turning professional, 11 of which were conducted in 2023 alone. 

"All tests have been negative for presence of any banned substances or performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). EJ Obiena has never failed a doping control test," Obiena's camp said in a statement.

The camp also said Obiena has undergone two lie detection tests, polygraph and Eye Detect, to further prove his case.

"Several other athletes have indeed taken polygraphs to prove innocence, yet EJ is the first to ever subject himself to both polygraph and Eye Detect. EJ was tested by certified polygraph examiner Hester Du Plessis from South Africa, who has conducted over 5000 polygraph exams over the past 15 years. Ms. Du Plessis confirms EJ has 100% passed the polygraph for the absence of any use of PEDs or banned substances; and he also passed 100% both doping and match-fixing test areas within Eye Detect."

According to the website of Converus, the company behind Eye Detect, the test is "a next-generation lie detector that measures slight changes in eye behaviors to detect lies."

In a document shared by Obiena's camp, the Eye Detect results were 'Truthful.' 

"In my professional opinion, he was truthful throughout these examinations and Mr. Obiena is not doping and the timeframe is the past eight years," Du Plessis added.

With the consistently negative doping tests and the lie detection tests revealing Obiena is truthful, the pole vaulter's camp said "The cumulative conclusion of this data is EJ Obiena and his Coach, Vitaly Petrov, have proven their innocence on the entire doping question, raised unfairly and without justification by Ms. Lavillenie."

Obiena's camp also invited Anais to subject herself to the tests which they are willing to cover.

The camp maintained they are still evaluating if they will file a case against Anais.

For his part, Obiena said the accusations were baseless.

"For me, personally I think the accusations made were pretty baseless. It didn't just affect me. It affected my coach as well, the people I've worked with because I did not do anything to enhance my performance illegally. It's all because of the hard work of my team therefore I believe the statement damaged the reputation I've carefully built the past few years," said Obiena.

The pole vaulter added there is no space for doping in sports.

"I believe that doping should never have space in sports. The definition of sports should not even entertain doping."

Obiena is the first Filipino who qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics after he met the entry standard of 5.82 meters at the BAUHAUS-Galan leg of the Diamond League in Stockholm, Sweden last July.

He also recently broke the Asian Games record en route to the gold medal as he cleared 5.90 meters.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News