Since the big wins in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Pinoy pride for our athletes has been at an all-time high, especially with the country’s first-ever gold medal from weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz. The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics is no different, with Pinoys roaring in support of our athletes. On top of boxing bronze medalists Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio and back-to-back gold medals from gymnast Carlos Yulo, another Filipino favorite is pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, a.k.a. EJ Obiena, who finished 4th in the men’s pole vault event in Paris 2024. Here are some fast facts about the Philippines’ pole vaulting representative:

Sports is in his blood

Both of his parents were athletes. His father Emerson was a pole vaulter who won silver and bronze medals in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, while his mother Jeanette was a hurdler in college.

His sister is also in the sports scene, joining pole vaulting like EJ and his father.

So he started pretty young

After watching his father leap heights in his childhood, EJ entered pole vaulting when he was just eight years old. But before dedicating his life to pole vaulting, EJ actually tried his hand (or feet?) in hurdles first. He shifted his focus to pole-vaulting in high school after he wasn’t able to reach the regional meets for hurdles, but it was a fruitful decision as he received a scholarship to the University of Santo Tomas.

He’s a Thomasian

He received scholarships from both the University of Santo Tomas and Ateneo de Manila University, but he chose to attend UST. He represented his school in the UAAP.

He already surpassed his dad’s record

His father, a former national record holder, had a 4.95-meter record in 2014. EJ has long surpassed this with his 5.25-meter leap in the 2015 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore.

He’s training under a world-class coach

EJ’s coach is Ukranian Vitaly Petrov, who has taught pole vaulters who eventually became Olympic gold medalists. One of Petrov’s students is the 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Thiago Braz of Brazil, with whom EJ is a good friend.

He was actually injured before a major tournament

Right before the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia, EJ suffered an ACL injury that prevented him from competing.

After competing in Paris 2024, his advisor and friend Jim Lafferty revealed that EJ had been suffering from back issues even before the Olympics. They even had to fly EJ to Italy to have a procedure just 12 days before the start of the Olympics.

But he made a comeback

Two years after his injury in 2017, EJ came back stronger than ever. He reset the national outdoor record thrice in one year. And by the time the 2019 SEA Games came around, EJ was able to bring home a gold medal.

He already got us a lot of golds

Since starting to compete internationally, EJ has already won several medals. He won silver in the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore and placed third in the 2017 Asian Championships in India. In 2019, he won three gold medals in just one year: the Asian Championships in Qatar, the SEA Games in the Philippines, and the Summer Universiade in Italy.

He also made history after winning the Bronze Medal at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, clearing 5.94 meters and beating the 5.92-meter Asian record set by Igor Potapovich of Kazakhstan 29 years ago.

A year later, this was immediately followed by a series of big wins: gold medals at the 2023 Southeast Asian Games, 2023 Asian Athletics Championship, and 2022 Asian Games (held in 2023), and a Silver Medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championship, where he cleared 6.00 meters. As of August 2023, this is his current personal record, which is also the current national record and Asian record.

EJ is currently ranked World No. 2 in pole vault, according to the 2023 World Athletics Rankings.

Originally published August 3, 2021; last updated August 8, 2024

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