By MARK REY MONTEJO
Two-time Olympian EJ Obiena missed the podium for the third straight time, finishing 7th in the 2025 Wanda Diamond League in Stockholm, an event won expectedly by the nation’s global icon in Mondo Duplantis early Monday, June 16 (Philippine time).
Obiena cleared the bar at 5.70 meters in the nine-man field that saw Duplantis eclipsing his own world record by registering 6.28m for the gold medal.
Australian Kurtis Marschall bagged the silver with 5.90m, while Dutch Menno Vloon snared the bronze with 5.80m.
After reigning supreme in Asian championship last month, the world No. 4 Obiena couldn’t sustain that momentum and finished fifth at the FBK Games in the Netherlands early this month.
But he was a big disappointment at the Oslo Bislett Games — another Diamond Discipline — by registering a “No Mark” in another event dominated by Duplantis.
Obiena started at 5.45m, which he cleared with ease, then immediately skipped 5.60m to go for 5.70m where he cleared on his second try.
His next height at 5.80m proved daunting as he failed in all three attempts.
Duplantis, the reigning Olympic and world champion, meanwhile, was again in a league of his own, clearing all his registered heights in a single attempt including the record-breaking mark that shattered his previous best of 6.27m he set at the end of February in France.
It marked the 12th time that Duplantis broke the world record, which he first started way back in 2020 where he surpassed Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie’s 6.16m feat.
Lavillenie, now 38, defied age and came in fourth with 5.80m, while American Keaton Daniel and Turkey’s Ersu Sasma posted identical 5.70m as Obiena but claimed fifth and sixth via countback.
Paris Olympics bronze medalist Emmanouil Karalis and silver winner Sam Kendricks tied for eighth with a similar 5.60m.
