EJ Obiena came up short in his campaign at the elite 2025 Mondo Classic after finishing eighth on Thursday, March 13 (early Friday, Philippine time) at the IFU Arena in Uppsala, Sweden.

The world No. 4 Obiena cleared the bar at 5.65 meters to settle for the highest placing via countback among Belgium’s Ben Broeders and France’s Renaud Lavillenie after the three veterans tallied identical heights.

Broeders finished ninth and Lavillenie managed 10th and last.

As expected, world record holder and two-time Olympic champion Mondo Duplantis wowed his hometown crowd by capturing the gold medal with 6.05 meters, while Paris Olympics bronze winner Emmanouil Karalis of Greece clinched the silver with 6.00m. Two-time Olympic medalist Sam Kendricks of the United States, registered a season-best 5.90m for the bronze.

Obiena cleared his opening height of 5.50m with ease and had little trouble at 5.65m. But he struggled with 5.80m, failing all his three attempts.

Duplantis, for his part, was impressive, as always, clearing all 5.65m, 5.90m, 6.00 and 6.05m on his first try. He tried 6.28m in an attempt to erase his fresh new world record of 5.27m he just established two weeks ago in France, but was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Australian Kurtis Marschall came in fourth with 5.90m, followed by France’s Thibaut Collet (5.90m), Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen (5.80m) and Turkey’s Ersu Sasma (5.80m).

All invited participants in this indoor gala event were Olympians.

The Mondo Classic serves as Obiena’s last indoor event before he focuses his preparations in the outdoor season, where he would be competing in three major events in the Asian Championships in Gumi, South Korea on May 21 to 31, the World Outdoor Championships in Tokyo, Japan on Sept. 13 to 21, and the Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand on Dec. 7 to 19.