ERNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA is now eating, sleeping and breathing Olympics.
The Tokyo Olympics-bound Obiena is locked and loaded for his third competition for the year in Dortmund, Germany, on Monday, a good two days after winning gold at the Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF) Indoor Athletics in Berlin where he set a new Philippine record and personal best of 5.80 meters.
And the Dortmund PSD Bank Indoor Athletics would be one of several warmup tournaments programmed to have him peak for the July 23 to August 8 Tokyo Games.
“It’s one competition at a time, you win in a field of 10 with world champions and Europeans and everything—that’s the confidence booster,” Obiena told BusinessMirror on Sunday. “Just being consistent and being able to perform under pressure is something that I get from all these competitions.”
His tour of Germany included a competition last week in Karsruhe City where he leapt to 5.62 meters, landing him in fifth place but good enough for him to reset the national record a first time.
German Torben Blech also cleared 5.80 meter in his second attempt, thus giving Obiena the gold in Berlin. Another German, Oleg Zernikel, did 5.72 meters to clinch the bronze medal in the 10-athlete field.
“I will compete in all competitions and try to win them all,” Obiena, 25, said. “Why bother going to a competition just to be second, third or fourth? Everybody, everybody who is going to the Olympics is aiming for that gold.”
“Who wants it most on that day will be basically the guy who will get it,” he stressed.
Obiena made himself busy in pandemic-stricken 2019. He participated in eight competitions highlighted by a gold medal at the 59th Ostrava Golden Spike in the Czech Republic with his 5.74-meter effort.
His harvest for the year consisted of two gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
“I don’t know how many competitions I will join prior to the Olympics,” said Obiena, who bared experiencing minor back spasm.
“But its manageable,” he said.
Obiena continues to train under world renowned Ukrainian Vitaly Petrov and remains based in Italy.