A week after shattering his national indoor record, Olympic-bound pole vaulter EJ Obiena reset his own mark at the ISTAF Indoor Berlin 2021 tournament at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Germany early Saturday.
Obiena cleared 5.80 meters on his first attempt to capture the gold medal, eclipsing his own mark of 5.62m he just posted at the Karlsruhe World Indoor Tour Meeting also in Germany.
Local bet Torben Blech settled for silver with a similar 5.80m, but made it on his second attempt.
Both Obiena and Blech attempted to clear 5.87m but failed.
German Oleg Zernikel took home the bronze with a personal best of 5.72m.
Obiena was satisfied with his performance, admitting that he wanted to do better after the Karlsruhe meet.
“Now I am seeing some kind of light in the tunnel and I am happy with the 5.80m jump,” he said in an interview with the official tournament website.
“I did really bad in Karlsruhe, so I was like, I wanted to redeem myself, please can I jump something good.”
Obiena said he doesn’t want to settle for 5.80m as he seeks to further improve in future tournaments.
“I mean, 5.80m is good. I am hoping for a little bit more. Hopefully next time. This height showed me that I am actually capable, we will see,” he said.