EJ Obiena finishes fourth in Hungary tiff

EJ Obiena saw his streak of podium finishes snapped after he placed fourth in the 12th Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary on Tuesday morning (Manila time).

The Filipino pole vault ace only managed to cross the 5.45 meter mark to finish behind Armand Duplantis of Sweden, who ruled the tournament with a 5.80, and French vaulters Renaud Lavillenie and Thibaut Collet, who wound up second and third after registering 5.70m and 5.60m, respectively.

Obiena skipped both 5.15m and 5.30m before it took him just one jump to clear 5.45m. The Olympian tried to soar past 5.60m but he committed an infraction on his first try then he formally bowed out of podium contention after using his last two attempts at 5.70m.

Obiena had recently bagged a bronze medal in the World Athletics Championships in late July where he also shattered his own personal, national, and Asian record of 5.94m.

Following that, he again copped a bronze plum in the Silesa Diamond League in Poland.

He also ruled the Jump and Fly meet in Germany early last month, bagging his first gold since contracting COVID-19.

—JMB, GMA News