EJ Obiena spiked a lot of blood pressures in his first two attempts before YELLING LIKE HELL and completing his last two attempts to clinch a spot in the men's pole vault finals.
Of course, Sweden's Armand Duplantis had an easy route, but at least the world number two is breathing behind his neck.
Obiena and ten other competitors will try to dethrone the pole vault king.
RANK | POLE VAULTER | COUNTRY | WRANK |
1 | ARMAND DUPLANTIS | SWEDEN | 1 |
2 | SONDRE GUTTORMSEN | NORWAY | 35 |
3 | EMMANOUIL KARALIS | GREECE | 8 |
4 | ERSU SASMA | TURKEY | 12 |
5 | OLEG ZERNIKEL | GERMANY | 21 |
6 | MENNO VLOON | NETHERLANDS | 15 |
7 | EJ OBIENA | PHILIPPINES | 2 |
8 | SAM KENDRICKS | USA | 3 |
9 | HUANG BOKAI | CHINA | 10 |
10 | BO KANDA LITA BAEHRE | GERMANY | 22 |
11 | VALTERS KREISS | LATVIA | 33 |
12 | KURTIS MARSCHALL | AUSTRALIA | 5 |
The thing about the qualification round is that the first to hit 5.80 or did enough to secure a Top 12 finish will go to the finals. The qualifying mark turned out to be 5.75 because the other group dropped like flies with Germany's Oleg Zernikel and China's Huang Bokai as the last men standing.
This is a good thing because that group had a shock exit in USA's Chris Nilsen. Nilsen is the world's number four and is also Tokyo's silver medalist. With his exit and Thiago Braz's suspension, this leaves Duplantis as the only medal winner left from the 2020 Olympics.
And aside from Nilsen, world number 6 and hometown hero Thibaut Collet and world number 9 Ben Broeders of Belgium also missed the cut.
I know Duplantis is a boss in the world of pole vault, but EJ has defeated him once or twice in two years. With the pressure of winning a gold medal somewhat taken away from Carlos Yulo's historic win, this wins Obiena can play his game with lessened distractions!