WEIGHTLIFTING, gymnastics, boxing and athletics—sports that in the very recent times reaped honors for the country on the global stage.
Ernest John “EJ” Obiena reaped silver in men’s pole vault at the world athletics championships in Budapest—meaning he’s the world No. 2, with the sport’s wonder boy Armand Duplantis only ahead of him.
Obiena shared his thoughts on his historic accomplishment.
“We need to face the reality that there are other sports where Filipinos can excel in, like athletics, boxing, weightlifting, gymnastics, among others,” Obiena told BusinessMirror at dawn Monday in Manila, right after the men’s pole vault awarding ceremony at Hungary’s National Athletics Centre in Budapest.
“They are making history one after another, so I am hoping they will be appreciated and recognized,” added Obiena, whose 6.0 meters in Budapest, that remained as the Asian record, speaks well of how he’ll be performing in next year’s Olympics in Paris.
Obiena, too, was referring to fellow Tokyo veterans weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz Naranjo, who won the country’s first Olympic gold medal; boxers Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam who got silver and Eumir Felix Marcial who bagged bronze in those Olympics; and Carlos Yulo, twice world champion in gymnastics floor exercise and vault.
Obiena’s thoughts came hours after the men’s national basketball team found its back against the wall in its bid to advance deeper into the FIBA World Cup following an 70-80 loss to Angola—it’s second straight in the tournament—and with it, comes the difficulty of emerging as the best-placed Asian country for that automatic ticket to Paris.
Unknown to almost everyone, Obiena contracted Covid-19 ahead of the worlds last August 8 and had to self-quarantine for 10 days in Formia. He misses precious training hours but that eventually didn’t show in Budapest.
He admitted basketball is embedded in the hearts and minds of Filipinos even before they’re born, thus the team sport would remained perched atop the totempole.
“They [Filipinos] like basketball which is almost a national sports. I think it is hard to take that away from any Filipinos,” said the 27-year-old Obiena.
But Obiena the athlete aired his respect to his fellow athletes.
“We should be supportive of athletes who are doing the best they can representing the country and it doesn’t matter if they win or not,” he said.
But Obiena’s call looked focused on sports where logically, Filipinos have strong chances at winning internationally.
“I believe every athlete of every sports deserves the utmost respect and support,” he said.
Duplantis, the US-born Swede, won gold in Budapest at 6.10m—he went for 6.23m to break his world record by 1mm, but missed.
Obiena clinched a podium spot in the 17 of 18 competitions in the current season. He only missed a medal at the Hauts-de-France, finishing in 10th place in rainy weather.
The two-time Asian and four-time Southeast Asian Games champion joined the elite 6.0 meters club last June in Norway and qualified for Paris when he cleared the 6.82m standard at the Bauhaus-Galan event in Sweden last July 2.
He’s the first Filipino to qualify for the Olympics so far.
Obiena also addressed media to keep supporting athletes in other sports.
“I hope our other athletes will be in the mainstream and I hope media would put some light into it and expose how amazing these people are in making history,” he said. “I hope they get appreciated and get the recognition they deserve…more importantly they get the love of the sports of the Filipino community.”