EJ Obiena defends his home court with a victory at the Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault challenge!
EJ Obiena gifted the passionate community of Filipino sports fans and athletes a weekend to remember.
This past weekend, the Ayala Triangle Gardens were transformed into a pole vault arena for the Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge: a two-day pole vault spectacle which brought nine of the world’s top pole vaulters together in Makati for a first-of-its-kind competition in the Philippines.
On Sunday, September 21, these top-ranked pole vaulters competed in a competition sanctioned by World Athletics, giving Filipino fans a true taste of world-class pole vaulting — and it delivered in a big way.
Hundreds of Filipino fans gathered together at the Ayala Triangle Gardens to witness the spectacle firsthand and continued to cheer the athletes on, despite the rainy weather. Buoyed by this support, the hometown hero himself, EJ Obiena, went on to defend his “home court” as he went all the way to win the gold medal at the first-ever Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge.
The two-time Olympian cleared 5.80 meters in two attempts to edge out French pole vaulter Thibaut Collet and World No. 12 to win the competition.
Obiena and Collet were also joined by World No. 5 Ersu Sasma, No. 6 Menno Vloon, No. 14 Austin Miller, No. 16 Oleg Zernikel, and No. 23 Matt Ludwig. As a special treat for Filipino fans, EJ also invited the winner of Saturday’s National Pole Vault Competition, Hockett Delos Santos, to join the international athletes as a wildcard entry.
This victory meant a lot to EJ for a number of reasons. This marks his first victory since his win at the Asian Athletics Championships last May, and was a big comeback after he faced an early exit at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo just last week. However, this win was made even more meaningful because it took place on home soil at a historic event.
“I am so happy right now that I won,” he told the crowd after receiving his gold medal. “The rain gave us the time to actually compete on our best. And everybody showed up, and the crowd stayed. Our team is great…
“You guys have made this dream come true…Hopefully, we can do this next year again.”
The resounding success of this event was a true testament to how far this sport has grown on a local level, thanks to EJ Obiena. With events like this, along with his initiatives to bring more pole vault facilities around the Philippines, he is blazing a trail to create more opportunities for Filipino athletes like himself.
Will we be seeing more events like this in the future?
Images from Make It Makati on Facebook.