BANGKOK — World No. 3 pole vaulter Ernest “John” Obiena is set to defend his title in the 25th Asian Athletics Championships on Sunday afternoon at the Supachalasai National Stadium in Thailand.
The Eugene, Oregon 2022 World Championships bronze medalist and Tokyo Olympian has expressed readiness to fight for the continental biennial meet title that he first won in 2019 in Doha, Qatar.
The 2021 edition supposed to be in Hangzhou, China was canceled due to the pandemic.
“I just stay calm, my goal is really to just compete the best that I can, nothing crazy, don’t do anything stupid, don’t be dumb, just do what I know I could do,” the 27-year-old Asia’s No. 1 athlete in pole vault said.
He will be competing against 12 Asian counterparts, where none of them were able to shine in the world stage yet except for him. But he won’t be taking anyone for granted in the competition especially Chinese Huang Bokai and Saudi Arabia’s Hussain Asim Alhizam.
“I haven’t seen the field here yet, but I am with Hussain from Saudi. I trained with him in Formia and we traveled with us here. Bokai, he’s in good shape as well and I think there’s another Chinese guy who jump 5.80 also this year,” he added.
“So it’s pretty good, they’re good competitors, Japanese guys? I don’t know if they are here. It is always interesting, we’ll see.”
Other pole vault competitors are Japanese Tomoya Karasawa and Seito Yamamoto, Kazakhs Ivan Tovchenik, South Korean Han Duhyeon, Qatar’s Mohamed Abdelsalam Seifeldin, Taiwan’s Chi Huang Cheng, Hong Kong’s Cheung Pui Yin, Chinese Yao Jie, Thailand’s Chomchanad Kasinpob and Patsapong Amsamrng.
The only concern for the three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist is jet-lag.
“Hopefully it doesn’t hit me on the competition day,” he said. “The idea of flying here a day before the competition, so that jet-lag won’t hit me. I’m expecting it to hit after the competition when I get back, and hopefully no rain.”
Obiena’s long time mentor and trainer Vitaly Petrov of Ukraine will be guiding him in the competition along with physio Antonio Guglietta..
“We are preparing for this and we’re looking forward jumping higher. No problem in this,” Petrov said, adding that their main goal so far in this tournament is to be prepared at all times. “We just wanted to be prepared and be ready at all times.”
Image credits: Instagram
Obiena ready to defend Asian Athletics title after four years
Source: News Paper Radio
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