Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena is aiming to clear six metres again in 2027, after a season in which he retained his Asian Games title and climbed back into the world’s top 10. Speaking to the Philippine Daily Inquirer after his win at the Aichi-Nagoya Games, he said a return to that height was “a matter of time”. He described the season as proof that an athlete only learns what a comeback looks like once it has happened.
The 2026 campaign marked a recovery for Obiena after two years disrupted by injury. A spine problem hampered him through 2024 and 2025, and he started this year ranked 11th in the world. He has since won 10 gold medals and moved up to 10th, with 1,320 ranking points. Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis remains first with 1,561 points. The climb from 11th to 10th is small on paper, but it returns Obiena to the leading group after two seasons spent managing his back.
His defence of the Asian Games title came in difficult conditions. Jumping in rain at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, Obiena cleared 5.91 metres with his final attempt, setting a new Games record. The height equalled his best of the season, which he first achieved at the Golden Sand Meet in Międzyzdroje, Poland. He left the decisive clearance until his last attempt of the competition, with the gold medal and the record both depending on it.
Obiena has been over six metres before. He cleared the mark twice in 2023, first at the Bergen Open Challenge in Norway and then at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. He pointed to the circumstances of his recent jumps as grounds for confidence, noting that he went over 5.90 metres in ideal weather and 5.91 metres in heavy rain. “So why not?” he said of the six-metre goal, adding that his coach, Marcin Szczepanski, shares that belief. His 2027 programme is expected to include the World Athletics Championships and the Southeast Asian Games. Those two events will shape his year, and he believes the form he showed in 2026 can carry over. For now he is resting after returning from Japan. Since getting home he has visited his former school, Chiang Kai Shek College, and attended a Senate committee hearing that reviewed Team Philippines’ campaign at the Asian Games.
