Pole vaulter EJ Obiena will be put to test ahead of this month’s Tokyo Olympics when he competes with fellow qualifiers in the Bauhaus-Galan Wanda Diamond League Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden late Sunday.
Obiena is coming off multiple podium finishes that include a gold medal at the Taby Stav Gala Street Pole Vault event that earned him a berth to this prestigious tournament.
The event is expected to be a preview of the Tokyo Games with current world record holder and hometown bet Armand Duplantis bannering the eight-player field.
Also competing are recently crowned United States champion Chris Nilsen, 2016 Rio silver medalist Renaud Lavillenie of France and bronze winner Sam Kendricks of the United States, American KC Lightfoot, Poland’s Piotr Lisek and Swedish bet Melker Svard Jacobsson.
Obiena is entering the tournament with a season- and personal-best outdoor record of 5.87m he registered at the Irena Szewinska-Bydgoszcz Cup in Poland last June 30.
Last month alone, the 25-year-old PH bet has reset his national mark twice: from 5.81m to 5.85m at the Jump and Fly tournament in Mossingen, Germany last June 12 and 5.87m in the said Polish event.
But Obiena is expected to hurdle a monumental task with Duplantis boasting of season best 6.10m, Kendricks with 5.91m, and Lavillenie and Nilsen with identical 5.92m.