Obiena sets out to become first Filipino to qualify for Paris 2024

EJ Obiena, right here thumping the sphere within the Southeast Asian Video games in Cambodia final month, is decided to punch a ticket to Paris 2024 as early as subsequent month. —AFP

There will likely be precisely one determine inside EJ Obiena’s thoughts when he campaigns in three tournaments beginning subsequent week: 5.82 meters.

And that’s a top he has cleared a number of instances within the very current previous, making him come into the beginning of the qualifying interval for the Paris 2024 Olympics with the boldness that he must get it accomplished and get it accomplished on the soonest attainable time.

“The aim is to qualify (for the Olympics) outright as early as attainable,’’ stated Obiena, eyeing a return journey to the Video games after his Tokyo marketing campaign in 2021 didn’t finish nicely.

Any match sanctioned by World Athletics beginning July 1 can be utilized as a springboard to the glitzy French capital, with the Bauhaus-Galan on July 2 in Stockholm, Sweden, the primary of these occasions as Obiena has a transparent shot at changing into the primary Filipino to qualify for the Video games outright.

‘I’m wholesome’

Up subsequent for the world’s No. 3 vaulter is the Assembly Worldwide de Sotteville in Rouen, France, on July 7 earlier than he flies Asia-bound to Bangkok, Thailand, on July 12 to 16 with coach Vitaly Petrov for the Asian Athletics Championship.

“I’m preparing for these tournaments and the great factor now’s I’m bodily wholesome,’’ stated Obiena.

Previous to his stint in Stockholm the place Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis is predicted to dazzle in entrance of a hometown crowd, Obiena will get his toes moist on the Ostrava Golden Spike in Czech Republic on Tuesday.

Since Tokyo, the 6-foot-2 son of former pole vault standout Emerson Obiena progressed exponentially, resetting his private greatest many instances over that reached its climax with a six-meter leap on the Bergen Soar Problem in Norway two weeks in the past.

Towards one of the best

He grabbed a bronze medal within the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, United States, the first-ever for a Filipino within the international monitor and subject championships. He even cracked the aura of invincibility that Duplantis had after beating the world No. 1 within the Belgium version of the Diamond League final 12 months.

Obiena confronted Duplantis almost two weeks again on the Oslo Diamond League-Bislett Video games and positioned third behind the world record-holder and second-ranked Christopher Nielsen of the US.

Obiena will meet these titans once more within the 2023 World Athletics Championships on Aug. 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary, earlier than the 27-year-old from Tondo, Manila, goals for the gold within the nineteenth Asian Video games in Hangzhou, China, on Sept. 23 to Oct. 8 the place he’s put in because the strong decide to win gold.

“Hopefully, I’ve already certified (to the Olympics) by then. My drive for successful stays essential and I’ve to maintain it that method,’’ stated Obiena.

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