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THE credentials of the 28-year-old Tondo-born pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena in a 12-month span was indeed impressive, highlighting his accomplishments by winning gold medals in three major international tournaments in record-breaking fashion.
He made history anew in the World Athletics Championships by becoming the first Filipino to join pole vault’s ultra-elite 6.00-meter club and then capped off the year by finishing as the No. 2 ranked athlete in his sport.
Obiena was also the first to book a berth in the 2024 Paris Olympics—the first Filipino to do so—with a silver-medal effort in a tournament in Sweden, just a day after the qualifiers for Paris began.
Those glowing achievements truly are hard to ignore especially in a year when many firsts were recorded in Philippine sports history.
Thus, Obiena has been chosen as the sole recipient of the Athlete of the Year trophy in the San Miguel Corp. (SMC)-Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Awards Night.
Gilas Pilipinas ending 61 years of frustration by bagging the basketball gold in the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Filipinas national team scoring a historic win in its FIFA Women’s World Cup debut and the pair of Margarita “Meggie” Ochoa and Annie Ramirez achieving a double gold for jiu-jitsu also in Hangzhou were all considered for the prestigious award.
But Obiena got the nod of the members of the country’s oldest media organization composed of print and online sportswriters headed by its president, Nelson Beltran, sports editor of The Philippine STAR.
ArenaPlus will be presenting the blue-ribbon event with the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee, PLDT/Smart and Milo as major sponsors.
Also backing the event are the Philippine Basketball Association, Premier Volleyball League, Rain or Shine and 1-Pacman Partylist Rep. Mikee Romero.
Obiena, son of former athletes Emerson and Jeanette Uy, is the first track athlete to be honored with the prestigious award since long jumper Marestella Torres in 2009.
He emerged the undisputed pole vault king in Asia in 2023—he set new records in the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games (5.65 meters), Asian Athletics Championships (5.91 meters) in Thailand and in Hangzhou 5.90 meters.
Obiena then raised the ante by becoming the first Filipino pole vaulter to win a silver medal in the world championships in Budapest. He did 6.0 meters in another podium finish following his breakthrough bronze medal in the 2022 worlds in Oregon.
Earlier, he finally joined pole vault’s ultra-elite 6.00-meter club and won gold at the Sparebanken Vest Bergen Jump Challenge in Norway, becoming the first and only Asian athlete to achieve the feat.
In between, he also qualified for Paris by clearing the bar at 5.82 meters in the Diamond League-Bauhaus Galan in Sweden and won numerous other tournaments during the season.
By the end of 2023, Obiena shot from No. 6 previously to the world’s second best behind Armand “Mondo” Duplantis.
Image credits: AP
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