Time is of the essence for pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, who has yet to clear 5.90 meters for him to secure a spot in next month’s World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland.

The deadline for Obiena to make the grade is 8 March.

Obiena, 30, finished sixth in the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophée EDF in Lievin, France last Friday (Manila time) after only clearing 5.70m.

World No. 2 Emmanouil Karalis of Greece cleared six meters to win the entire event.

Sondre Guttormsen of Norway edged Zachary Bradford of the United States via countback as both pole vaulters finished with 5.90m.

The two-time Olympian has yet to go beyond the 5.70m-mark since February after winning the 12th Asian Athletics Indoor Championships in Tianjin, China.

He also grabbed a bronze medal in the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe in Germany but could not go high enough.

Obiena’s next stop will be Torun, Poland for the ORLEN Copernicus Cup on 22 February.

He will be gunning for back-to-back titles after he won it all last year after clearing 5.80m.

After this, he will have to join a World Athletics-sanctioned event if he wants to hit the qualifying mark.

Obiena missed last year’s World Championships in Nanjing, China after not clearing the qualifying standard of 5.85m.