Filipino pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena broke his pole during competition and landed seventh place at the 2024 Ostrava Golden Spike – World Athletics Continental Tour Gold in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
The incident came at the end of a frustrating week for the 28-year-old Obiena, who began encountering troubling issues, while trying to transport his gear from Los Angeles to Europe.
“Broke my pole and only made my opening bar. Frustrating to say the least and very pissed at the whole debacle. Taking what positive I can take on this whole situation and thankfully, it seems like I am in one piece,” said Obiena, who took to social media to vent his ire on what became of his campaign.
The world no. 2 Obiena, who spent a month preparing for four events is the US and in Europe, talked about his issues after the world top pole vaulter, Armand Duplantis of Sweden, ruled the event after clearing 6.00m.
Ethan Cormont of France took the silver at 5.62 meters, and Belgian Ben Broeders settled for the bronze also at 5.62 meters.
Obiena managed to clear 5.52 meters before missing out on his attempt 5.72 meters twice.
After that, Obiena’s pole snapped in two while he was up in the air, trying clear 5.82 meters.
Obiena said he will just have to redeem himself when he heads for Oslo, Norway for the Bislett Games on Thursday.
“We are still gonna give it a good go in @bislettgames on the 30th!!! Let’s go!!!,” added Obiena.
Obiena’s logistical issues started when he left Los Angeles to Europe. He booked a flight where his poles were not accepted due to full cargo space on the flight.
“We had nowhere to put the poles or we will just miss the flight. Luckily, there were two Filipinas that helped and got the poles from check-in counter to cargo and shipped them to the manufacturer,” said Obiena, who thanked fellow pole vaulter Alyanna Nicolas for making it possible to transport his poles to Europe.
Logistical issues in bringing his poles to the Czech tourney continued to be a problem for Obiena for five days.
Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Duplantis narrowly missed a world-record attempt at 6.25 meters.
Duplantis, who earlier set a world mark of 6.24m in April, brushed the bar with his belly on the third attempt at the height.
“I’m happy about the last attempt, it felt quite good. I was actually closer than I thought I was going to be. Gives me confidence going forward,” Duplantis said.
