NOW that Ernest John (EJ) Obiena has officially confirmed that he would miss the 2025 World Indoor Championships, he has shifted his attention towards world No. 1 Mondo Duplantis in his next competition.
Obiena will compete in his final indoor event, Mondo Classic, on Thursday at the IFU Arena in Uppsala, Sweden, before embarking on a preparation cycle for the upcoming outdoor season, which begins in April.
The event will feature the world’s greatest vaulters in a gala format on a track centrally positioned in the stadium, providing the spectators with a close-up view, music, and lights for an entertaining evening.
According to veteran sports journalist Joaquin “Quinito” Henson, this is the fourth season of the competition named after Olympic record holder Duplantis, who is hoping to break new records in his home soil.
Stick to the Plan
Recently, Obiena has already revealed on social media why he is unable to qualify. Despite the certainty of the situation, the Filipino pole vaulter will stick to the plan and push through with the Mondo Classic.
“I’ll still go to the Mondo Classic but I’m not stressing over it. I’m treating it as a tune-up. I feel fine and to be honest, my numbers have been improving but I’m not showing it in competition,” Obiena said.
Obiena returned to competition last January, after suffering a stress fracture in his spine, just after his lackluster performance in the 2024 Paris Opympics. He then had six contests but was unable to clear the qualifying mark of 5.85m.
“I started the indoors thinking I had time to be ready as typically the qualification period is one year. For the first time, the qualification is not by ranking and it started last September. I only had a window of about three weeks,” he said.
“I went to Estonia in hopes that the result would be valid. It was their nationals. Unfortunately, we don’t have an indoor nationals.”
“In Europe, the circuit has stopped because of the European indoors so technically, even though I still had time to qualify, I had no competitions to join. I’ve been exhausted trying to find competitions,” he added.
Outdoor Grind Begins
According to Obiena, vaulting indoors and outdoors is nearly the same. However, he has always seen indoor competitions as secondary to outdoor tournaments, therefore he will focus more on the latter.
“Indoors should be easier as we don’t need to manage wind or rain. Ambiance is not a factor. For me, the outdoor season starts with the Diamond League in Xiamen,” he explained.
Following the Mondo Classic, Obiena will focus on the Diamond League, which consists of 14 series events in which athletes compete for points to qualify for the two-day Final in Zurich on August 27 and 28.
