Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena in action in the 19th Asian Games. POC-PSC Media Pool.

Dyan Castillejo

ABS-CBN News

<div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);min-height:13.8px"><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1722343824333IMG_4577.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner"><span id="isPasted" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color:rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3);text-size-adjust:auto;text-align:left;-webkit-text-stroke-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);caret-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);color:rgb(0, 0, 0)">Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena in action in the 19th Asian Games. </span><em style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color:rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3);-webkit-text-size-adjust:auto;text-align:center;-webkit-text-stroke-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);caret-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);color:rgb(0, 0, 0)">POC-PSC Media Pool.</em></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);min-height:13.8px"><br/></div><p>EJ Obiena will start his 2024 Paris Olympic Games campaign later this week.</p><p>The Filipino pole vault star will step foot on the Games&#x27; stage on Saturday, August 3, as he looks to rise from his performance in the 2021 Tokyo Games.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/7/21/paris-2024-ej-obiena-battling-with-physical-problems-ahead-of-olympic-games-1108">READ: EJ Obiena ‘battling with physical problems&#x27; ahead of Olympic Games</a></div><p>Obiena previously shared that he is dealing with some issues ahead of the official start of his event, more specifically, &quot;battling with physical problems.&quot;</p><p>He then gave an update before he entered the Philippines&#x27; training camp and concluded his preparations in the Normandy Sports Centre.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m still alive, I&#x27;m still kicking,&quot; he told ABS-CBN News in a call.</p><p>&quot;I think I&#x27;m in a better headspace. Physically, I hope it&#x27;s better. I think it is going in the right direction and I&#x27;m currently in Normandy, so we&#x27;re 15 from Paris. The plan is to go to Paris on the 31st,&quot; he continued.</p><p>Obiena then went on to tackle what was indicated in his previous post and explained that it has given him a lot of limitations in his preparations.</p><p>&quot;It definitely hampered my training,&quot; said Obiena. &quot;I  don&#x27;t want to put it out there just yet. I mean, it&#x27;s not life-threatening or anything, but it&#x27;s just the athletes&#x27; life. It&#x27;s just the timing of it. It&#x27;s just very bad and with the preparations not being ideal. But like I said, we&#x27;re doing everything that we can every day.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I think it&#x27;s going in the right direction. I mean, I can train. It&#x27;s not like I can&#x27;t train. I do train, but there&#x27;s a lot of limitations to the things that I can do,&quot; he continued, while also adding how he didn&#x27;t even previously want to announce it on social media.</p><p>&quot;I don&#x27;t really want to put it out there, because they&#x27;ll know if I&#x27;m limited in certain ways. I don&#x27;t really want to. It just hampers my training. But I think I&#x27;m okay.&quot; </p><p>He also explained that his opponents may also be dealing with the physical toll of their respective preparations. </p><p>&quot;For sure, I&#x27;m definitely not the only one [injured]. I&#x27;m pretty sure there are also other people going through something similar. It&#x27;s now all about getting to the starting line and making sure I&#x27;m able to compete. I think that is all that matters, and then make it to the finals. When you&#x27;re in the final it&#x27;s a derby out there and let&#x27;s see.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I just need my body to stay in one piece. That&#x27;s all I need to get into the final. And after that, all the pain and all these problems can come back and I&#x27;ll deal with it,&quot; he added.</p><p>Moving forward, Obiena said that despite his setbacks, he is opting to look through it in a positive manner.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/7/9/paris-2024-ej-obiena-primed-to-lead-ph-athletics-in-olympic-games-2108">READ: EJ Obiena primed to lead PH athletics in Olympic Games</a></div><p>&quot;Like I said, I&#x27;m still in one piece so it could have been a lot worse. I guess I&#x27;ve also been very lucky this year,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;I broke a pole and I really didn&#x27;t get injured, so let&#x27;s deal with it in a positive sense. Look at the brighter side, and keep believing. It&#x27;s not like I&#x27;m just sitting around. I&#x27;m trying to adapt to the best of my abilities to be competitive. So that being said, I think it also speaks about how mentally I&#x27;m trying to prepare and not sitting around.&quot; </p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m still doing everything that I can to be in the best shape I can be. It&#x27;s not optimal, but it&#x27;s not like it&#x27;s the end of the world. I believe so and I still believe in my chances.&quot;</p><p>With this, the Tondo native remains optimistic that he can finally win an Olympic medal. </p><p>&quot;They haven&#x27;t diminished, but I&#x27;m being a little bit smarter than how I normally should,&quot; Obiena said. &quot;I&#x27;m taking it with a little bit of a grain of salt, and let&#x27;s just get through the qualifiers, and we get to the final.&quot;</p><p>Obiena vowed that he will be giving it his all despite the adversities that he has been going through.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m doing everything that I can. As I said, it&#x27;s not optimal, but the games have not started for me. Competition is on August 3rd, final on the 5th,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;ll take it one step at a time, and I still believe in myself. Yeah, let&#x27;s go get this,&quot; he ended. </p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FT4TLrlesuE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);min-height:13.8px"><span></span><br/></div>

<p>EJ Obiena will start his 2024 Paris Olympic Games campaign later this week.</p>

EJ Obiena will start his 2024 Paris Olympic Games campaign later this week.

Paris 2024: EJ Obiena ‘going in the right direction’ ahead of Olympics stint | ABS-CBN

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Paris 2024: EJ Obiena ‘going in the right direction’ ahead of Olympics stint

Paris 2024: EJ Obiena ‘going in the right direction’ ahead of Olympics stint

Dyan Castillejo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 30, 2024 09:14 PM PHT

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