EJ Obiena Is Warming Up for the Asian Games With Another Gold in Germany

EJ Obiena cleared 5.76 meters on his first try to win a pole vault meet in Halberstadt, Germany. It's another gold in his build-up to the Asian Games, where he's the defending champion.

Kulay News TeamEditorial Team

Aug 1, 20261 min readUpdated Oct 12, 5:11 PM

Silhouette of a pole vaulter in mid-jump against the sky — EJ Obiena cleared 5.76 meters to win in Halberstadt, Germany.

Key Facts

EJ Obiena won the Halberstadt pole vault meet in Germany with a 5.76m clearance.
He cleared it on his first attempt.
He tried 5.90m but missed all three attempts.
He's the defending Asian Games pole vault champion.
The Asian Games start on September 19 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

EJ Obiena is in his bag, and the Asian Games are coming.

The Filipino pole vaulter won the first-ever International Pole Vault Meeting in Halberstadt, Germany, which wrapped up early Saturday, August 1, Philippine time.

The numbers

Winning height: 5.76 meters
Attempts needed: just one
Next try: 5.90 meters, which he missed three times

Qatar's Seifeldin Abdelsalam took second and American Cole Walsh finished third.

His post-win message: "Thank you Halberstadt for the wonderful time!"

Why you should care

Obiena is the defending Asian Games champion in men's pole vault. The 2026 Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, start on September 19, so this is basically his warm-up season.

New city, new coach

About a month before this meet, he moved to Athens, Greece, to train with coach Marcin Szczepanski. His longtime coach Vitaly Petrov is still part of the team as a consultant.

Two Olympics, three Asian Championships golds, and still flying. Laban, EJ!

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