ILAGAN CITY – Fil-Heritage athlete Elijah Cole bucked the unpredictable weather condition and came out on top in his nerve-wracking duel with hometown bet and national team member Hokett Delos Santos in the men’s pole vault open in the ICTSI-Philippine Athletics Championships here Sunday, March 26.

Fil-heritage athlete Elijah Cole soars for the pole vault gold (Photo courtesy of the Rio Deluvio)

Despite the sudden change in weather condition that saw the once sunny and humid afternoon into a gloomy and windy atmosphere, Cole and Delos Santos engaged in a fierce showdown before the former soar to 5.05 meters and claim the gold.

Delos Santos settled for silver with his vault clearing 5.00m while veteran Janry Ubas bagged the bronze with a 4.65m clearance.

Vaulting in his first foray out of the US, Cole admitted that he had to fight through some nerves and the harsh conditions in the field that saw the bar wiggle and fall due to the strong winds.
 
“Definitely not as planned, I don’t know if you saw the crazy storm coming and maybe a little bit nervous because I started a little bit higher than I wanted to because I didn't know the wind was gonna be like that,” said the 24-year-old from North Carolina who traces his roots from Nueva Ecija and Leyte.

“It was really hard when we started clear skies and everything, everything was clear and had to go and I had to change a lot of things because of the wind,” he added.

Cole started his attempt at 4.80m but struggled to clear it in his first two tries, leaving him in a crucial situation where one more fault would waste everything he prepared for heading into the annual meet.

Not to be deterred, Cole simply knew he had to overcome the challenges and deliver.

“It kept on falling and falling and it kinda iced me a little bit. It was the worst case scenario, it was my third attempt and ultimately came here for nothing so to open competition like that goes up to the pole, to make a little stiffer and jump it and clear it,” he recalled.

He managed to clear the bar on the third attempt and he slowly got his rhythm as he went toe-to-toe with Delos Santos in the final moments.

“It was just really windy like my poles are  going all over the place but luckily everything pieced together, I trusted it, enjoyed it everything was good,” he added.