Pole vaulter EJ Obiena continued his rampage and matched his national indoor record for a bronze-medal finish in the prestigious Mondo Classic 2023 in Uppsala, Sweden Thursday, Feb. 2 (Friday in Manila).
The world No. 3 Tokyo Olympian cleared 5.91 meters on his third attempt to settle for the third-place honors behind world record holder and hometown bet Mondo Duplantis and American KC Lightfoot.
Obiena and Lightfoot actually finished with identical records, but the Filipino bet wound up for a lower placing via countback.
Obiena’s feat equaled his performance at the Perche Elite Tour in Rouen, France last year.
He tried to clear 6.00m twice and 6.05m once, but was unsuccessful.
It was Obiena’s third podium finish in his third indoor tournament this year after a gold-medal effort at the Perche En Or in Roubaix, France and a silver finish in the International Jump Meeting in Cottbus, Germany last week.
Meanwhile, Duplantis reset a new meet record of 6.10m for the gold medal.
The Swedish star attempted to eclipse his world indoor record of 6.20m by trying 6.22m, but failed.
Australian Kurtis Marschall and Norwegian Pal Haugen Lillefosse came in fourth and fifth place with 5.82m, followed by Belgium’s Ben Broeders, France’s Thibaut Collet, American Sam Kendricks, Brazilian Thiago Braz and German Bo Kanda Lita Baehre with 5.67m.