Despite using a borrowed pole from American Matt Ludwig, Olympics-bound pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena had another record-setting performance early Saturday morning (Friday night in Germany) in ruling the ISTAF Indoor Berlin meet, setting a new national indoor mark of 5.80 meters along the way.

Obiena clinched the gold on his first try, nipping German rival Torben Blech on the countback over another crack field of eight athletes at the 17,000-seat Mercedes Benz Arena, a popular venue for indoor sports and concerts, in the German capital.

The Pinoy vaulter surpassed his week-old indoor mark of 5.62 meters in placing fifth in the IAAF World Athletics Tour Indoor meet in Karlsruhe, Germany, and just .01 centimeters off his Philippine standard of 5.81 meters.

He set the national record in topping the Salto Con L’Asta meet in Piazza, Italy in September 2019, emerging as the country’s first qualifier to the Tokyo Olympics.

“Thanks a lot Matt!!!” Obiena declared on Instagram in gratitude to the US indoor champ. “Major thanks for letting me borrow his poles again to compete, saved my butt! I helped bend them for you.”

• EJ Obiena obliterates PH pole-vault record to rule Berlin indoor tournament

RELATED VIDEO

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

Ludwig, a silver medalist at the Karlsruhe event with a jump of 5.80 meters, placed 7th in clearing 5.62 meters in a four-way tie.

With fewer attempts, Polish Piotr Lisek, the 2017 Euro Indoor king, was 5th while German Bo Kanda Lita Baehere, the 2019 Euro Under-23 indoor gold medalist, was 6th.

“I do not really know how this was possible,” Obiena said in the post-meet press briefing. “Now I am seeing some kind of light in the tunnel and I am happy with the 5.80-meter jump. I did really bad in Karlsruhe so, I was like, I wanted to redeem myself.”

He added that he was challenged by Blech, who was his chief protagonist in the 2019 University Games in Naples, Italy, where he also prevailed over the German in clinching the gold medal likewise on the countback in clearing 5.76 meters.

“It is always fun competing with Torben. We have been competing in a lot of meets, and when I always compete with him, I forget everything…He brought me there. It was not me. It was the competition itself,” Obiena said. “This is why competing with Torben is always nice.

“I am hoping for a little bit more. Hopefully next time. The height showed me that I am actually capable. We will see.”

• Tokyo Olympics: How long layoff became advantageous to vaulter EJ Obiena

Obiena’s father, national coach Emerson Obiena, said he believed that based on what he saw in his latest outing “it might not be long before EJ (Obiena’s nickname) will be able to break his national record in the succeeding meets.

“Based on the consistency he has been showing at 5.80 meters this is all possible. Kaunting push pa baka malampasan na iyong 5.81 meters. (A little more push and he will be able to surpass 5.81 meters).”

The elder Obiena bared that his son was also back to using the 18-stride approach since his last event in Karlsruhe that might also be a factor for his improving performance.

“In our last talk, my son said that he was still slowly adjusting back to his usual 18 strides and this showed in his last performance, which is good for his Olympic build-up.”

EJ said winning in Berlin was also a way of paying tribute to his training partner, Brazilian Rio Olympic Games gold medalist Thiago Braz, who was tops in the same event five years ago.

“I look up to Thiago Braz. He won this competition in 2016. It is just a fun meet. This competition is something I always wanted to win. Now that I have the Bear Trophy, it is nice. Cloud nine!” Obiena exclaimed.

But Obiena won’t be reveling in his latest accomplishment too much, according to his father.

“EJ has been invited to see action in the PSB Bank Indoor meet in Dortmund on February 7,” he said of the Olympian’s next competition, which is located 492.1 kilometers southwest and about a five-hour drive from Berlin.

“Ideally my son should at least have a two-day rest before the next event but I believe he can recover in time since he did not exert himself in Berlin. He was able to compete well with a one-day break when he saw action in Taiwan a few years ago,” the elder Obiena added.

• Pole vaulter Obiena looks ahead to 2021 after wrapping up 'weird 2020 season'