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‘I want to take that opportunity that kids want to do pole vault and have a place to do it,’ says EJ Obiena of his donation of pole vault pits, with hopes of developing more champions in the country
MANILA, Philippines – Pole vault star EJ Obiena dreams of a time when his sport is easily accessible to the Filipino youth.
And he’s putting his money where his mouth is as Obiena and his camp donated three pole vault pits to different venues around the country, he announced in his meet and greet event in Parañaque on Sunday, September 15.
“I hope that these pits would be able to raise the next generation of pole vaulters,” Obiena told reporters after interacting with hundreds of his fans at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay.
Obiena has almost singlehandedly brought the sport into the national spotlight following his rise as a world-class athlete.
He reached No. 2 in the world rankings, won a historic silver in the World Athletics Championships, and nearly ended Philippine athletics’ decades-long drought for an Olympic medal in the Paris Games, where he finished fourth.
Those are on top of a long list of accolades, which include back-to-back titles in the Asian Athletics Championships and a gold in the Asian Games.
Set to go down in history as one of the most dominant figures in Asian athletics, Obiena hopes for other Filipinos to achieve the same success in his sport.
“My goal is basically make it conducive for kids to try it. I want to take that opportunity that kids want to do pole vault and have a place to do it,” said Obiena, who partnered with sportswear giant Puma to raise funds for the pits.
“Because with that, I think you create a bigger pool of talents, and with that, you have more medalists and more possible champions.”
Aside from donating pits, Obiena also plans to stage pole vault clinics in cooperation with sports drink Milo to be followed by workshops for coaches.
“We’ll have the coaches’ seminars to make sure that there are going to be coaches who are able to sustain this project,” said Obiena, whose Ukrainian mentor Vitaly Petrov also trained former world record holder Sergey Bubka.
“It is not like a one-time thing. Hoping this is going to be a long-term investment with good returns.”
Still nursing a spine injury, Obiena will soon return to Italy, where he will continue his recovery before he goes back to training. – Rappler.com
