Because of travel restrictions, Tokyo Olympics-bound Ernest John Obiena will remain in Italy to continue his preparations.
Instead of moving to another country, the 25-year-old Obiena is set to go to the northern province of Padua to get ready to join a series of European indoor competitions this February.
“Nagsisimula na ang training niya for specific preparations para sa darating na indoor season sa Europe. Pero, nothing definite sa schedule,” said Obiena’s father Emerson.
Organizers are still finalizing their schedules since Italy has reported more than 2 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 76,000 deaths.
It has since seen a resurgence of COVID-19 with reports of new cases peaking at more than 40,000 a day in November.
And new lockdowns to stem the COVID-19 resurgence are being done following the discovery of new, potentially more contagious, variants of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
“Wait and see pa kasi ang mga organizers kung itutuloy nila ang mga competitions,” added the elder Obiena as he monitors EJ’s situation while in Formia.
In Obiena’s last outing in Rome last September, Armand Duplantis made heads turn when he broke Sergey Bubka’s world outdoor record at 6.15 meters on his second attempt.
Belgian Ben Broeders, who set a national record, tied Obiena at the same height and settled for the silver after acing it on his second attempt. Former world record holder Renaud Lavillenie finished fourth with 5.70m.
His stint in the southern part of Europe was done with the help of coach Vitaly Petrov, and the guidance of 2016 Rio champion Thiago Braz of Brazil.
Obiena is doing his preparations with defending champion Thiago Braz da Silva of Brazil.
Last Sept. 12, Obiena also competed against a talented field, and still managed to pick up a share of a bronze medal in the men’s pole vault meet of the Poznan Athletics Grand Prix 2020 in Poland.
The 24-year-old Obiena has been competing against world class rivals.
But Obiena was still able to keep his composure and cleared the height at 5.52 meters on his second attempt.
On Sept.5, a confident Obiena recorded his second season best attempt of 5.74 meters to grab the gold in the 59th Ostrava Golden Spike competition in the Czech Repubic.
He was supposed to leave Italy, but issues involving his visa has kept Obiena from going to the Doha leg of the Diamond League athletics meet in Qatar.
That’s because Obiena was not able to renew his visa in time.
More complications would have awaited him if he went home to Philippines, and sought to return to Formia, Italy, and then to Doha afterwards.