By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
A podium finish evaded EJ Obiena once again as he finished seventh for the second straight time at the Diamond League Monaco on Friday, July 11 (early Saturday, July 12, Philippine time).
The two-time Olympian managed to clear 5.72 meters but it was way behind even to the 5.92-meter effort of bronze medal winner Kurtis Marschall of Australia.
Olympic and world champion Mondo Duplantis expectedly dominated the field with a new meet record of 6.05 meters.
Obiena actually shared the same mark with Dutchman Menno Vloon, but placed lower via countback.
It was the fourth consecutive time that Obiena finished outside the podium since he reigned supreme at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea last May with a winning mark of 5.77m.
After that he placed fifth in Hengelo, Netherlands (5.66m), recorded a “No Height” at the Oslo Bislett Games Diamond League in Norway, and wound up seventh in the Bauhaus-Galan Diamond League in Stockholm, Sweden with 5.70 meters.
Meanwhile, Duplantis once again proved his dominance, breaking the six-year-old meet record of 6.02 meters set by Poland’s Piotr Lisek.
Paris Olympics bronze medalist Emmanouil Karalis of Greece took silver after beating Marschallm via the countback.
Obiena passed the opening height of 5.47m and cleared 5.62m on his first attempt, but needed all three tries to make 5.72m.
Attempting to beat his season-best of 5.80m, he went for 5.82m but failed to clear it.
