Obiena zooms to World No. 6 in pole vault rankings ahead of Olympics

MANILA, Philippines, July 8 ------ Tokyo-bound EJ Obiena has moved up four places in the World Athletics Men's Pole Vault Rankings just weeks removed from the Olympics. After a stellar performance this year where he clinched 10 podium finishes in 13 meets, Obiena zoomed to the No. 6 spot after breaking through to the Top 10 just last year. Obiena ranked higher than reigning Olympics gold medalist Thiago Braz of Brazil, who is at No. 7.

Meanwhile, Tokyo gold medal favorite Armand Duplantis is at the top spot. Duplantis is the current world record holder of both indoor and outdoor. He cleared 6.18m and 6.15m for the indoor and outdoor records, respectively.

Obiena's personal best is currently at 5.87m. The 25-year-old recently competed against Duplantis and World No. 2 and 3 Sam Kendricks and Piotr Lisek in the 2021 Stockholm Diamond League earlier this week. Duplantis and Kendricks came out with the gold and silver medal finish in the meet while World No. 4 Renaud Lavillenie finished third. Obiena ended up fourth with World No. 3 Lisek behind him at fifth.

The Men's Pole Vault competition at the Olympics unfurls on July 31.

Source: philstar.com