Ernest John Obiena’s road to the 20th Asian Games takes another demanding turn in Switzerland as the Filipino pole vault star contends with a stacked field led by world-record holder Armand Duplantis in the Zurich leg of the Diamond League on Friday.

The 30-year-old Obiena will use the prestigious Weltklasse Zurich as another crucial test as he fine-tunes his preparations for the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, where he will defend the gold medal he won in Hangzhou in 2023.

And the opposition could hardly get tougher.

Duplantis headlines the 10-man field after soaring to a season-best 6.21 meters to win the Lausanne leg last Friday.

The reigning Olympic and world champion will be joined by Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, who owns a season-best of 6.16m and remains one of the few vaulters capable of consistently challenging the Swedish superstar on the sport’s biggest stage.

Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen, another member of the exclusive six-meter club this season, is also entered along with American Zachery Bradford, whose season-best stands at 5.83m.

Completing the powerhouse cast are Americans Sam Kendricks and Christopher Nilsen, Frenchmen Renaud Lavillenie and Baptiste Thiery and Australia’s pride and joy Kurtis Marschall.

For Obiena, the Zurich competition offers another opportunity to measure his progress against the world’s best.

He recently finished sixth in the Lausanne leg after clearing 5.81m in another star-studded competition won by Duplantis at 6.21m.

But Obiena showed encouraging signs before that performance when he cleared a season-best 5.91m at the Golden Sand meet in Międzyzdroje, Poland — his first clearance above 5.90m since 2024.

The Filipino star remains in the middle of rebuilding his form at the right time as his biggest competitions of the year draw closer.

“Fun times in Memoriał Kamili Skolimowskiej. Happy to be back here where I ended my 2024 season,” Obiena posted on social media.

“Still a lot of work to go but we are on the right track. We get another shot in Weltklasse Zürich!!!”

Apart from defending his Asian Games crown, Obiena is also hoping to qualify for the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships scheduled from 11 to 13 September in Budapest.

With the qualifying race tightening, every major competition has become important for Obiena, who will once again be thrown into the deep end against the finest in the world.

Zurich, however, may be more than just another stop on the Diamond League calendar.

It could be another chance for Obiena to find the rhythm and confidence he needs before taking aim at a second straight Asian Games gold medal in Nagoya.