Philippines — POLE vaulter Ernest John Obiena made another record-breaking feat for the third time in two months. This time, he cleared 5.15 meters on his third attempt in the pole vault event of the 2014 Philippine Sports Commission-Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association Weekly Relays last Saturday at the Philsports oval in Pasig. Obiena’s record-breaking spree may have been a result of his three-month training stint in Italy, where he spent time with Vitaliy Petrov, the coach of former world record holder Sergey Bubka. According to pinoyathletics.info, Obiena made another attempt at the national men and national junior record after he recovered from a foot injury. Last month, he cleared a record-breaking 5.10 meters in the third week of the Weekly Relays Series at the Philsports oval in Pasig. Before that, Obiena shattered the national men’s and national junior marks after he came up with a 5.01-meter feat. His efforts already erased the 22-year-old Philippine mark of 5.0 meters by Edward Lasquete in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Obiena has also reset the standard national junior mark, which used to be 4.31 meters. With his latest performance, Obiena has matched the record of reigning SEA Games’ gold medalist Kreetha Sinthacheewa of Thailand and silver medalist Iskandar Alwi of Malaysia, who are ranked no. 1 and 2 with their similar 5.15-meter performances.
