EJ Obiena bucks rocky start, soars to pole vault finals of Paris Olympics

EJ Obiena has moved a few jumps away from a coveted medal as he qualified for the finals of the men's pole vault event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday at the Stade de France. 

Obiena had a shaky start as after skipping the opening height at 5.40 meters, the 28-year-old Filipino vaulter was unable to clear his first jump at 5.60 meters after two tries to move on the brink of an early elimination. 

He then decided to pass on his supposed third and final jump at the 5.60m mark and went straight on the next mark. 

The multi-titled vaulter breezily cleared the 5.70 meters and 5.75 meters only on his first tries. 

Obiena did not need to clear the qualification standard of 5.80m height as only 12 athletes remain in contention. 

World no. 1 and world record holder Mondo Duplantis of Sweden also qualified by clearing 5.60m and 5.75m while Sondre Guttormsen of Norway and Emmanouil Karalis of Greece emerged as the second and third seeds in Group A. 

Surprisingly, world no. 4 and Tokyo silver medalist Christopher Nilsen of USA and world no. 11 Piotr Lisek of Poland did not make the finals after bowing out early over in Group B. 

The decorated Filipino pole vault ace will return to action in the medal round slated at 1 a.m. on Tuesday (Philippine time). 

—JKC, GMA Integrated News