Pole vaulter Obiena escapes elimination in Paris

his detractors, E.J. Obiena recovered in time to secure a passage into the finals of the men’s pole vault final at Stade de France in the Paris Olympics.

Unable to clear 5.60 meters in his first two tries, the world No. 2 Filipino decided to go for broke and upped the bar to 5.70 in a bid to salvage his bid.

As the small but boisterous Filipino crowd at the 80,000-capacity venue cheered him on, Obiena got the job done to keep his Olympic gold medal drive alive.

A failed attempt would have sent the Italy-based Obiena packing.

But he rose to the occasion and even went on to clear 5.75 to join an elite cast of 12 finalists that includes reigning Olympic champion and world record holder Armand Duplantis, who hardly perspired and challenged in the qualifiers that had 31 aspirants.

In the final tally, Obiena ranked seventh.

Duplantis was No. 1 alongside Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen, Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, Turkey’s Ersu Sasma and Germany’s Oleg Zernikel . The Netherland’s Menno Vloon was sixth and Obiena seventh.

The United States’ Sam Kendricks, China’s Huang Bokai and Germany’s Lita Baehre also did 5.75 meters to make the final while Latvia’s Valters Kress and Australia’s Kurtis Marschall posted 5.70 to round up the final list.

A notable absentee is world No. 3 Christopher Nilsen, who placed 26th overall, who could only clear 5.40 meters.

The moment of truth for Obiena, who was 11th in Tokyo, happens on Tuesday morning.

In the boxing ring once again at the North Paris Arena, Nesthy Petecio battles Chinese Xu Zichun in the quarterfinal round 57-kilogram match on Sunday with the winner guaranteed a bronze medal and a possible shot at the gold.

Petecio found herself arranging a clash with Xu after clipping French pride Amina Zidani, 4-1, in the Round of 16 on Saturday.

In her Paris debut, Petecio, who settled for silver in Tokyo three years ago, got past Jaismine Lamboria of India in the Round of 32.

A one-time world championships gold medalist, the 5-feet-2 Petecio deals with an opponent who will tower over her for the third straight time.

Xu stands 5-feet-6 and she opened her Olympic campaign by slipping past Italian Irma Testa.

Spanish-born John Cabang, meanwhile, kicks off the country’s twin bid on Sunday when he competes in Heat 1 of the men’s 110-meter hurdles at 5:50 p.m. at Stade de France.

Forty-five minutes later, it will be the turn of Filipino-American Lauren Hoffman to take the spotlight when she vies in the women’s 400 hurdles Heat 4.

Later on Sunday, two-time world champion gymnast Carlos Yulo returns to the big stage when he attempts to win the gold in the vault at the Bercy Arena.

The Manila native was campaigning in the floor at presstime Saturday.

Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion was upbeat that the country’s premier gymnast would deliver as much as two gold medals.

Many of the Filipino athletes who made the Olympic grade set up camp in Metz, France, before proceeding to Paris.

The five-man boxing team spent two weeks in France before relocating to Saabrucken in Germany for its final buildup.

With a little over a week left before the curtains go down, the Philippines has yet to medal but hopes are high that those still in the thick of competitions are going to deliver.

Weightlifting won’t be played until 7 August while golf takes center stage also on the same day.

John Ceniza, Elreen Ando and Vanessa Sarno will lead the bid in weightlifting while Bianca Pagdanganan and Dotie Ardina will take the fight in women’s golf.

Apart from these two sports, medal bids in fencing, judo, rowing and swimming have already vanished in this smoke.

Yulo is the survivor of the four-member gymnastics team after the elimination of Emma Malabuyo, Aleah Finnegan and Levi Ruivivar.

Boxing has also lost main man Eumir Marcial and Hergie Bacyadan.

Samantha Catantan also didn’t make the medal round while Filipino-Japanese Kiyomi Watanabe also had a cameo appearance after getting ousted in the women’s -63 kg of judo.

Joanie Delgaco wound up 20th overall in rowing.

Swimming likewise fared miserably after Jarod Hatch ended up one of the slowest in the 100-meter butterfly and ex-Canada team standout Kayla Sanchez made the semis in the women’s 100 free but failed to advance.

The last time in Tokyo, the Philippines won its first-ever Olympic gold courtesy of lifter Hidilyn Diaz, who failed to qualify for Paris.

The tally also had two silvers and a bronze thanks to Petecio and Carlo Paalam and Marcial.