EJ Obiena bags pole vault bronze in star-studded Rome tilt

August 18 ------ Pole vaulter EJ Obiena pocketed the bronze medal in the elite Rome Diamond League in Italy on Friday after posting a season-best 5.80 meters. Obiena failed to clear the 5.85m – an attempt that could have reset his own Philippine record of 5.81m – and settled behind Belgium’s Ben Broeders and world record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden. Broeders posted 5.80m on his second attempt to clinch silver while Duplantis bagged the gold with a new outdoor world record of 6.15m.

This was Obiena’s sixth podium finish since he started competing last month and second bronze medal in the Diamond League after the same podium finish in Monaco last month. Former world champion Raphael Holzdeppe of Germany came in fourth with 5.70m. Swedish pole vault star Armand Duplantis eclipsed Ukrainian legend Sergey Bubka’s 26-year mark, setting a outdoor new pole vault world record of 6.15m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday. Duplantis, who already holds the world indoor record of 6.18m, bettered the mark of 6.14m achieved by Bubka in July 1994 in Italy.

The 20-year-old succeeded on his second attempt in a competition he dominated in perfect warm and windless conditions, but without spectators to celebrate in an empty Stadio Olimpico. “I think I’m still up in the clouds right now,” said the US-born athlete. “It’s a surreal, super crazy feeling.” Duplantis set the world record indoors in February, and had made the outdoor mark his goal with the Olympic Games and European championships postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was something I really wanted to do, there was a lot of confusion between the indoor and outdoor,” said Duplantis. “I thought ‘why not just do it?’ be the best outdoor, to clear up the confusion.” Duplantis had cleared an earlier attempt but hit the bar on the way down. “It was a kind of mental thing.” “After that first attempt I knew what I had to do it so just went out and did it,” said Duplantis, who heads to the final Diamond League meet in Doha next week

Source: mb.com.ph