As the world pole vaulting season ended, Filipino athletics’ star Ernest John “EJ” Obiena saw his World Athletics rankings fall to no. 11 from no. 7 last September.
The descent comes for a challenging year for Obiena, who finished the season when he won the gold medal at the inaugural Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge held at the Ayala Triangle Gardens last October.
Obiena, who has been recovering from a back injury in 2024, is set to compete on his next tournament which is the coming Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, this December.
Before he competed in Manila, Obiena missed the cut the World Championships finals in Tokyo when he settled for a tie for 18th place for clearing 5.55m.
So far, Obiena earned a bronze medal at the World Athletics Continental Tour in Beijing and won gold at a French tournament last February.
For now, Obiena has said he plans to rest and recover before starting preparations for the indoor season in early 2026.
So far, Armand Duplantis of Sweden continues to lead the rankings at no. 1 with 1678 points.
Emmanouil Karalis of Greece is now at no. 2 with 1487, followed in third by Australian Kurtis Marschall (1417) and American Sam Kendricks in fourth with 1402.
Menno Vloon of the Netherlands is in fourth with 1391, and Renaud Lavillenie of France is at fifth with 1367.
