EJ Obiena Just Won Again. So Did Everyone Else.
On Saturday, Philippine time, Filipino Pole Vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena cleared 5.76 meters in a converted cathedral square in Halberstadt, Germany, and won his sixth gold medal of the year. He tried for a stadium record after — 5.90 meters, three attempts, no luck — but the gold was already his by then, decided on his very first jump. It capped a run that started with a bronze in Düsseldorf back in January and has barely let up since: Cottbus, the Asian Indoor Championships in Tianjin, Berlin, Poland, Austria, and now this. Six golds, a season-best 5.85m in Madrid along the way, and a training relocation from Italy to Greece mid-year that Obiena himself credits for the streak — the same logic, he’s said, that elite Kenyan distance runners use to explain their own dominance: you get better by training daily with people who are already great. It’s a genuinely remarkable stretch for a guy who spent most of 2025 rehabbing a recurring spine fracture. And it happened in the same 48 hours as …

