EJ Obiena on his aspiration to leave a lasting mark for the youth

Filipino pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena, one of Tatler Asia’s Most Influential 2022 listers, is not only the country’s best but one of the world’s legendary young athletes.

Obiena was born into a sports-inclined family. His father, Emerson, was a silver medallist at the 1993 Southeast Asian Games and coached him in his early years until he reached 18. Growing up on the track, it is no surprise that he would later fill in his parents’ shoes.

But the journey for him to becoming today’s third-best active men’s pole vaulter, according to World Athletics, was not free of obstacles. Obiena competed for his high school, Chiang Kai Shek College, at the 100- and 400-metre hurdles but failed to qualify for regional meets. With this, he never had a taste of a Palarong Pambansa medal.

Obiena admits that he was never a child prodigy. But it was from this failure that he jumped to greater heights.

At first, sports was something personal to him, something that his family collectively enjoyed. Later, Obiena made it his entry point to college, which he achieved and led him to the University of Santo Tomas. By eventually breaking the national record and junior national record for pole vault in 2014 at 18 during the weekly relays of the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association, his path to the 2015 SEA Games became clearer. He clinched the silver medal that year, and in 2017, made it to the Asian Athletics Championships, returning home with a bronze medal. Since then, he has been collecting gold medals left and right and beating his record each year. Last June 2023, he reached 6 metres as his personal best record, making him the first Asian athlete to do so. Much recently, he bagged a gold medal in the 26th Internationales Stabhochsprung-meeting, which led him to earn a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships.