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| EJ Obiena bucked a bad start to enter the men's pole vault finals. |
MANILA--EJ Obiena braved an early scare and leaped his way to the finals of the Paris Olympics men's pole vault event following the results of the first round on Saturday at the Stade De France.
Expected by many to make the next stage, Obiena, the world-ranked number two pole vaulter, almost missed the cut but bounced back late to seal his place in the Final 12.
The 28-year-old athletics star, who revealed that he suffered a back injury in his pre-Olympic grind, found himself in dire straits as he missed his first two attempts at 5.6 meters, his starting height.
Knowing that clearing 5.7 meters could keep him alive, Obiena decided to skip his last attempt at 5.6 and went for it instead at 5.7 with the danger that he might be eliminated outright if he botched it.
Obiena indeed cleared 5.7 meters in his only attempt to save himself probably to the sigh of relief of those watching the event either live at the athletics stadium or on their televisions and streaming platforms.
Obiena got a reset of his three tries at 5.75 meters, but he cleared the said height in only his first jump, eventually booking a place in the finals as one of only 10 pole vaulters to clear that height, therefore not needing to go for the set qualification standard of 5.8.
World number one Mondo Duplantis and Obiena's Asian rival and training partner Huang Bokai also booked their places in the finals after clearing 5.75.
Australia's Kurtis Marschall and Latvia's Valters Kriess got the callback among those who only made it to the 5.7 level following the countback tiebreaker to complete the cast in the championship round set early Tuesday (Philippine Time).
Team USA's Chris Nilsen, also tagged as an obstacle in Obiena's medal bid, was surprisingly knocked out as he could not go beyond 5.4 meters.
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