Olympic champion Armand Duplantis is once again expected to put up a show in the Memorial Van Damme athletics meet, which is the Brussels’ leg of the Wanda Diamond League this Friday in Belgium.
But top Filipino bet Ernest John “EJ” Obiena will also be there, now that he is finding the confidence to go higher.
This time, the 25-year-old Obiena will find out if he is making great strides with the adjustments that he has been doing in his third reunion of sorts with those he competed with in the Tokyo Olympics.
“Pareho lang number of strides na ginamit niya. Small gradual adjustments lang hanggang makuha niya ang efficient take off,” said EJ’s dad Emerson, on how the young Obiena is adjusting to heights of more than 5.9 meters.
Last Sunday in the Paris leg of the Diamond League, Obiena almost went toe-to-toe with world record holder Duplantis, who eventually took the gold medal.
Obiena snared the silver medal when he sailed past the bar at 5.91 meters right on his first attempt.
His effort eclipsed the previous national record of 5.87 meters, which Obiena established in July.
Duplantis won the gold at 6.01 meters, six centimeters short of the course record he set last year.
Duplantis and Obiena will be joined in Brussels by Tokyo Olympics silver medallist and Lausanne leg winner Chris Nilsen, who settled for third place in the Paris leg at 5.81 meters.
Meanwhile, Obiena is now the fifth-best pole vaulter in the world, a few days after smashing the Philippine national record in Paris. Obiena, who moved a notch higher from his previous ranking, now has 1,361 points, 19 and 32 points behind Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie and USA's Sam Kendricks, respectively. Duplantis of Sweden is still ranked No.1, followed by Christopher Nilsen of USA.