1 week Ago By Delfin Dioquino
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rapplerAds.displayAd( "mobile-middle-1" );MANILA, Philippines – Filipino pole vault star EJ Obiena finished seventh in the Xiamen Diamond League in China as he resumed the outdoor season on Saturday, April 26.Obiena cleared 5.
62 meters in his first meet in nearly a month after ruling the Taiwan International Pole Vault Championship in March. Reigning world record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden came out on top once again despite posting his lowest clearance of the year.Hurdling the six-meter bar in all of his first four events of the year, Duplantis recorded 5.
92m, which still proved enough to beat out Emmanouil Karalis of Greece and Menno Vloon of the Netherlands for the gold medal.Karalis and Vloon both tallied 5.82m, but the Greek edged the Dutch for the silver via countback.
Before flying to China, Obiena trained at home as he set up camp at the Ayala Vermosa Sports Hub in Cavite together with coach Vitaly Petrov and fellow pole vaulter Hussain Al-Hizam of Saudi Arabia. In Xiamen, Obiena finished with the same clearance as Australia’s Kurtis Marschall and the USA’s Sam Kendricks, who placed sixth and eighth, respectively.The Asian record holder of 6.
00m, Obiena will remain in China as he competes in the Shanghai Diamond League on May 3. – Rappler.com.
