At A Glance
- EJ Obiena stamped his class and plucked the gold medal in the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tianjin, China on Saturday, Feb. 7.
EJ Obiena stamped his class and plucked the gold medal in the 12th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tianjin, China on Saturday, Feb. 7.
The world No. 11 pole vaulter was head and shoulders above his peers, clearing 5.70 meters to bag the country’s first gold in the continental indoor meet.
Coming in second and third were hometown bets Li Chenyang and Chen Yang after clearing 5.60 and 5.40m, respectively.
Obiena hardly had a competition in the final as only him and Li were the pole vaulters remaining after the 5.50m bar.
The Filipino star cleared 5.50m with ease to assure himself a podium finish. Li tried to contend for the gold but he needed two tries to get over silver-winning height and then missed on all his remaining attempts at 5.70m.
Obiena attempted for the 5.80m but also fell short on his three attempts.
Meanwhile, John Cabang Tolentino fell short of the podium in the men’s 60m hurdles race.
Tolentino clocked 7.71 seconds in tie with David Yefremov of Kazakhstan.
They finished behind gold medalist Liu Junxi of China who topped the race in just 7.53sec.
Shusei Nomoto of Japan bagged the silver in 7.59sec, while Chen Yuanjiang copped the bronze with a 7.67sec finish.