Misfortune again reared its ugly head as Ernest John Obiena had to compete with a broken pole at the Oslo Bislett Games.

But he didn’t let the disaster break his spirit.

Obiena simply brushed off the adversity as he cleared 5.72 meters to settle for the silver medal in the event that serves as the sixth leg of the prestigious Diamond League in the Norwegian capital on Friday.

The second-best pole vaulter in the world forged a tie with Emmanouil Karalis of Greece to secure the runner-up honors in a performance that came at the heels of an ugly and forgettable seventh-place finish in the Ostrava Golden Spike in Czech Republic on Wednesday.

American KC Lightfoot cleared 5.82 meters to clinch the gold medal in the event that was missing the presence of world record-holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden.

To remedy the tight situation of competing with a broken pole, Obiena had to borrow from Lightfoot and Menno Vloon of the Netherlands.

“Another pole broken (pole) and it’s not even…. On the brighter side of things, Thanks to @pole_vlo and @kc_lightfoot for lending me poles to jump on,” said Obiena in a social media post before leaving for Sweden to compete in the BAUHAUS-GALAN tournament on Sunday.

“Greatly appreciate it, gentlemen. Now we are trying to look for poles to use in @bauhausgalan.”

The Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (Patafa) said the issue of having broken poles should not happen again.

In a conversation with Daily Tribune, Patafa president Terry Capistrano said having damaged equipment in a major competition is nothing new. However, the federation is trying its best to come to the rescue to make sure that Filipino athletes will not get distracted while competing against the best in the world.

“So, you can never say never. But, you know, in transit, sometimes these things happen. That’s why we always try to order additional poles,” said Capistrano, who has been very supportive to Obiena and other Filipino athletes since his assumption as Patafa head three years ago. In fact, he personally supervised the shipment of Obiena’s poles to Tokyo when he competed in the Summer Games in 2021.

“It’s manufactured according to the athlete’s specification. It takes a few weeks to manufacture it.”

Capistrano added that the federation is monitoring Obiena and making sure that all his needs are being provided.

“If he needs it, he’ll get it right away. No questions asked,” Capistrano said.

“No need for us to talk about it.”