A day after becoming the first-ever Asian to hit the 6-meter mark in the men’s pole vault competition, the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) expects Ernest John “EJ” Obiena to achieve greater heights in upcoming overseas competitions.

EJ Obiena and Vitaly Petrov (EJ Obiena's Instagram post)

The 27-year-old Asian record holder registered a record-breaking 6-meter jump to win the gold during the Bergen Jump Challenge over the weekend in Bruggen, Norway that also intensify Obiena’s campaign to qualify for another shot in the Olympics next year.

“While we are all elated with EJ Obiena’s 6-meter performance in Norway the other day, we, the PATAFA, believe that he can do better in the coming months and beyond knowing what he’s capable of as a world class athlete,” PATAFA President Terry Capistrano said.

Obiena reset his previous 5.94-meter personal best in the Eugene, Oregon World Athletics Championships last year where he settled for bronze medal.

PATAFA believed his achievement is just the start of something more to come particularly on upcoming events like the Asian Athletics Championships on July 12 to 16 in Pattaya, Thailand and the World Athletics Championships on August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.

Obiena is also targeting the gold in the Hangzhou 20th Asian Games on September 23 to October 8 — where all these tournaments mentioned are all Paris Olympic qualifying events starting July 1 up to June 30 next year.

“We are happy and proud of EJ for becoming the first Asian athlete to join the 6-meter club in the men’s pole vault. But we know he is capable of doing better because of his continuous training and competing abroad under veteran coach Vitaly Petrov plus his perseverance,” he added.

Despite the accomplishment, Capistrano said the three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist must continuously work very hard to be in the place where he should be since he is “ certainly an extremely gifted athlete.”

“There is still a lot of work to be done in order for him to get to where he should be. He has been working very hard and smart to get to that 6-meter,” Capistrano said of the World No. 3 and Asia’s No. 1 pole vaulter.

PATAFA and Capistrano also thanked the Philippine Sports Commission headed by Chairman Dicky Bachmann and the Philippine Olympic Committee headed by President Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino for their unconditional support.

Obiena becomes the 28th member of the exclusive men’s pole vault 6-meter club — joining the likes of World No. 1 and record holder Armand Duplantis (Sweden) followed by Renaud Lavillenie (France) and the legendary Sergey Bubka (Ukraine), KC Lightfoot (USA), Steve Hooker (Australia), Chris Nilsen (USA), Thiago Braz de Silva (Brazil), Brad Walker (USA), Paul Burgess (Australia), Toby Stevenson (USA), Jeff Hartwig (USA), Timothy Mack (USA), Sam Kendricks (USA), Maksim Tarasov (Russia), Dmitri Markov (Belarus), Okkert Brits (South Africa), Radion Gataullin (Russia), Yevgeny Lukyanenko (Russia), Igor Trandenkov (Russia), Piotr Lisek (Poland), Bjorn Otto (Germany), Tim Lobinger (German), Danny Ecker (Germany), Jean Galfione (France), Shawnacy Barber (Canada), Timothy Morgunov (ANA) and Sondre Guttormsen (Norway).