EJ OBIENA is a class act, period. Mental messes will never mess his focus. He gets the job done despite bumps.
Hard to find someone like him in Philippine sports. And he always comes shining through from a field less travelled: pole vault.
Look, Obiena has already won six medals this year in world events in Europe and America. He did all that while under duress, including a silver-turned-bronze effort only last week in the World Athletics Championships.
To be in the worlds is already huge. But a podium finish there? Unbelievable.
In carving his latest coup, Obiena did not only become the first Asian to medal in the worlds but also break, again, the Asian mark in a sport that is least loved, less indulged in, by any Filipino competitor.
Obiena pole-vaulted to 5.94 meters, good for second behind Swede wonder Armand Duplantis, who is the reigning Olympic champion.
Duplantis flew to a wondrous world record 6.21 last weekend in Eugene, Oregon, and no one’s surprised one teeny-weeny bit. It’d be a first-class shocker if he lost; he’s been dominating pole vault the last decade or so.
Obiena had to settle for the bronze, only because he made his 5.94 on his second try. American Chris Nilsen snatched silver as he cleared 5.94 in just one attempt.
But days before Obiena’s bronze victory, he had to wiggle his way out of a messy maze at American immigration. Over-eager airport officials took Obiena’s spat with athletics officials back home as a deterrent to his stepping into US soil.
Also a man of intellect—I have always insisted that most good athletes are also gifted with brilliant minds—Obiena’s fool-proof explanation about his long-running rift on money issues with former track and field president Popoy Juico has already been resolved with finality.
Our Commission on Audit has, in fact, absolved Obiena of any irregularity in handling his training expenses, even obliquely chiding (former athletics chief) Philip Ella Juico on hurling unfounded accusations against the elite athlete.
Show me another competitor as articulate as Obiena and I’ll tell you that sportsperson is also bound to hit the big time in no time.
THAT’S IT Aligned with EJ Obiena are the likes of Pancho Villa, Flash Elorde and Manny Pacquiao (boxing); Carlos Loyzaga and Robert Jaworski (basketball); Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting), Carlos Yulo (gymnastics), Paeng Nepomuceno (bowling), Efren “Bata” Reyes (billiards), Lydia de Vega (100 and 200 meters), Yuka Saso (golf), Junna Tsukii (karate) and Eugene Torre (chess), who are among the Philippines’s sports greats likewise endowed with minds that matter to go with extraordinary skills in their chosen sport.