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How PATAFA row affected EJ Obiena

ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fDyH8J7LOdY?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>Believe it or not, EJ Obiena&#x27;s recent crisis with his mother federation somehow made him a better competitor in pole vaulting.Obiena figured in a nasty dispute with the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association (PATAFA) regarding the liquidation of the salary of his Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov, wherein he was virtually accused of pocketing the money.Obiena was training in Italy when the controversy broke out.&quot;Actually, it helped me that I was there. If I was here maybe I&#x27;m already dead,&quot; said the world&#x27;s top 3 pole vaulter in an interview with ABS-CBN Sports. &quot;Kidding aside, if I&#x27;m here I would have been way more overwhelmed.&quot; <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/08/17/22/ej-obiena-officially-reinstated-to-national-team">EJ Obiena officially reinstated to national team</a></li></ul>&quot;There was this buffer of things, I couldn&#x27;t imagine what my mom and dad needed to endure during those times.&quot;It was in late 2021 when Obiena got into trouble with the PATAFA leadership. PATAFA charged Obiena for allegedly failing to settle his 85,000 Euros (over P4.8 million) obligation to the coach.The incident raged on for months and Obiena, who was already a multi-awarded pole vaulter, was dropped from the national roster.This prompted the country’s lawmakers to step in to defuse the tension and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) work out a mediation process. In August 2022 both parties decided to settle the issue and Obiena got reinstated to the national team.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/09/20/22/ej-obiena-receives-commendation-from-senators">Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena gets commendation from senators</a></li></ul>&quot;My mental health was really terrible... Maybe one day I do write a book to see how much toll it takes for an athlete in that spot... It just sucked,&quot; said Obiena.&quot;What&#x27;s worse seeing my family who has nothing to do with it was dragged into it, especially my mom.&quot;It was during his troubles with PATAFA when Obiena launched a series of victorious campaigns.He won gold medals in the 2022 Orlen Cup and the 2022 Orlen Copernicus Cup in Poland before setting his new indoor record of 5.91 meters en route to winning silver in the Perche Elite Tour in France. In the 2022 Southeast Asian Games he won yet another gold before taking another mint in the European City of Sports in Italy.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/28/22/obiena-now-worlds-no-3-in-mens-pole-vault-rankings">Obiena now world&#x27;s No. 3 in men&#x27;s pole vault rankings</a></li></ul>But Obiena&#x27;s biggest win was when he beat world record holder Armand &quot;Mondo&quot; Duplantis for the gold in the Diamond League last September in Belgium. &quot;That&#x27;s one of the things, I saw I could do better. My coach... he asked me how can you still compete? I was like, &#x27;I&#x27;m a Filipino.&#x27; I meant that and I&#x27;m proud of that. Those were the times I was driving 5 in the morning going to training. Balancing my training and crisis handling situation,&quot; he said.Obiena said his personal struggles seemed to made pole vaulting look easier.&quot;Looking now, it made pole vaulting very different,&quot; said Obiena. &quot;It&#x27;s not life and death situation, it&#x27;s a sport. At the end of the day, pole vaulting is a sport.&quot;

Believe it or not, EJ Obiena's recent crisis with his mother federation somehow made him a better competitor in pole vaulting.