ERNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA shrugged off rust from an eight-day quarantine because of Covid-19 infection to win the men’s pole vault gold medal at the Taby Stavhoppsgala competition in Tibblevallen, Täby, Sweden.
Obiena cleared 5.92 meters, a centimeter short of his Asian record he set in Austria last September, but it was enough to shove pal Thiago Braz da Silva, the Rio 2016 Olympics gold medalist from Brazil, to the silver medal with a 5.82-meter effort and Simen Guttormsen of Norway to the bronze with a 5.72-meter leap.
“I still need to improve on a lot of things but what is important is we’re getting there,” Obiena told BusinessMirror from his hotel room in Stockholm, a 30-minute drive from Taby.
Australian Kurtis Marschall, Briton Harry Coppell and American Luke Winder all cleared 5.62 meters in the seven-athlete field.
Obiena, 26, was infected with Covid-19 last June 12 while in Formia, Italy, and was cleared last June 20. He missed competing at the Oslo Bislett Games in Norway last June 16 and Meeting de Paris in France last June 19.
“It was like three days of agony when I got high fever, where my temperature reached 39 to 40 [Celsius]. But I’m okay now,” Obiena said. “I was alone in my room in Formia for eight days and only my physio assisted me.”
He traveled solo to Sweden last week because his long time Ukrainian Coach Vitaly Petrov attended to his other pole vaulters in Sweden.
But Obiena—who shares a hotel room in Stockholm with Chinese pole vaulter Bokai Huang to save money—said he still received pointers from Petrov through messaging apps.
Obiena also confided to BusinessMirror that Petrov has yet to receive a single allowance from the Philippine Sports Commission this year. The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association didn’t renew the Ukrainain’s contract after it expired last December.
Next up for Obiena is the Stockholm BAUHAUS-galan Diamond League on Friday.