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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Obiena eyes podium finish in world indoor meet

Obiena eyes podium finish in world indoor meet

Published Mar 2, 2024 06:08 am

At A Glance

  • The pole vault event is scheduled at 7 p.m. (3 a.m. on March 4 in Manila) with the world No. 2 national record-holder facing fellow Olympians in what is expected to be a preview of the Paris Games.

EJ Obiena’s 2024 Paris Olympics preparations will be put to test on Sunday, March 3, when he shoots for a historic podium finish in the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.

ej obiena.jpg
EJ Obiena seeks for nothing but a podium finish in his first World Athletics Indoor Championships stint. (File Photo)

The pole vault event is scheduled at 7 p.m. (3 a.m. on March 4 in Manila) with the world No. 2 national record-holder facing fellow Olympians in what is expected to be a preview of the Paris Games.

A podium finish for Obiena will put him in history books as the first Filipino to win a medal in the global showpiece, although the Tondo native has won a bronze and a silver medal in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the world championships, which is being held outdoors.

But the tournament is more than a gauge for Obiena on how he will fare in Paris, with six other fellow Olympic qualifiers also seeing action in the tournament.

Leading the star-studded lineup is world No. 1 Armand “Mondo” Duplantis of Sweden, who aims not only to defend the title he won in the last edition held in Belgrade, Serbia in 2022 but also to shatter his own world record of 6.22 meters.

Also in contention are world No. 3 Chris Nilsen of the United States, who won the bronze in the previous edition, and Paris Games qualifiers Thibaut Collet of France, Kurtis Marschall of Australia, Menno Vloon of the Netherlands, Piotr Lisek of Poland, Ersu Sasma of Turkey, and Emmanouil Karalis of Greece.

World No. 5 Sam Kendricks is also expected to give the competition a run for its money, as well as world No. 8 Ben Broeders of Belgium, world No. 22 Robert Sobera of Poland and world No. 22 Austin Miller of the US.

Meanwhile, Fil-American Lauren Hoffman failed in her bid to advance to the semifinals of the women’s 400 meters after finishing fifth in her heats and 21st overall on Friday, March 1.

The 24-year-old national record-holder timed 54.66 seconds, three ticks slower than top qualifier Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands, who clocked 51.31sec.

Hoffman’s performance was far slower than her previous marks, where she reset the Philippine indoor record twice the past two months -- at the Clemson Bob Pollock Invitational where she posted 53.91sec last January and at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational where she finished 53.71sec early last month.

Fil-Spaniard John Cabang, for his part, is competing in the men’s 60m hurdles at press time.

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