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EJ Obiena is raising the bar for the athletes who hope to follow in his footsteps.
The Ayala Triangle Gardens is, on most days, a hub for business. Situated right at the heart of the financial capital of Metro Manila, it is surrounded by skyscrapers and the hustle of office life. But for one weekend in September, it took on an entirely different energy.
On September 20 and 21, the Ayala Triangle Gardens were transformed: a pole vault runway cut through the well-known walkway between Ayala Tower 1 and the Makati Stock Exchange building; bleachers flanked on both sides were filled by fans; and a pole vault crossbar, lifted to as high as 5.80 meters in the air, was erected in the space where concrete and greenery meet.
From a business hub, the heart of Makati came to life in a whole new way to host the Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge.
This historic event — led by Filipino pole vaulting star EJ Obiena in partnership with Ayala Foundation and MVP Sports Foundation — brought together nine of the world’s top pole vaulters to Manila for a first-of-its-kind competition.
EJ arrived at the runway on the first day of the event, the day of the National Pole Vault Competition, in awe.
“I was a little bit worried that nobody’s going to be watching,” he admitted to The GAME. “But there was a crowd, and there were people. And literally, it was raining, and they were still there. I was taken aback. I was like, wow, that’s how much people actually love this sport and how much they’re fascinated by it.”
The second day of the event buzzed with even more excitement than the first. Hundreds of Filipinos braved the Sunday afternoon rains to watch the international competition and cheer on all of the competing athletes, especially the hometown hero himself.
“It is a bit of additional pressure [competing in front of his home crowd], but I really thrive in those moments and I enjoy those things,” he shared.
Fueled by this additional pressure, EJ Obiena gave his adoring fans the show they’d been hoping for. When he successfully cleared a height of 5.80 meters, the crowd leapt into the air in a loud fit of cheers — perhaps unlike anything the Ayala Triangle Gardens had ever seen before. It was this leap that won EJ the gold medal.
“It’s the best performance I’ve had, and it’s the most pressure I’ve been in because I’m competing at home.”
EJ recognizes this as his biggest highlight of the 2025 season, and to win the whole thing was the perfect way to end the season — a much-needed sense of respite after what had been a frustrating year.
Setting a high bar
EJ Obiena always feels good when he comes home, especially after spending the majority of his time in Europe. But he noted that this time around felt a little bit different.
“I didn’t really have a good season,” EJ somberly admitted. “It’s a disappointing one, I would say, so it’s a bit weird [to be back].
Obiena’s year was clouded by frustrations. Dealing with a back injury that he’d been struggling with since the 2024 Olympics derailed his progress up until his fourth-place finish in Paris.
One of his biggest frustrations this year was his performance in the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo last September 13. Clearing 5.55 meters, he only managed to place 11th in the qualifying round and missed out on a spot in the finals.
Yet, by other standards, EJ still had a pretty good season. Among his highlights from 2025 is his gold medal finish at the Asian Athletics Championships, which marked his third consecutive gold medal from this event — an impressive three-peat.
But he holds himself to a high standard.
“It’s hard to find a highlight when I feel like a lot of the things that have happened really is quite, in a way, for me, disappointing. I’ve won a couple of meets here and there, but they’re not the ones that I actually wanted to win.”
Reflecting on his three-peat at the Asian Championships, he added, “I remember I was talking to a good friend of mine. I told him [I was] having a bad year, and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, you’re having a bad year. You just won Asian Champs.’
“It’s like, yeah — but that’s what I’m supposed to do, right? I’ve worked hard enough to make sure that that is inevitable.”
The former World No. 2 pole vaulter is a tough guy to satisfy. He holds a personal best of 6.00 meters and owns the Asian pole vault record. Thus, from his point of view, his results from his 2025 season — where he notched a season high of 5.80m — didn’t live up to what he knows he is capable of.
“I felt like the results really didn’t give justice to what I’ve given, the amount of work, the amount of time that I’ve put into the craft.”
He added, “Satisfaction and meeting goals are just the norm…[Athletes] work so hard to be doing that, and everything less than that is a disappointment. So you’re never really satisfied…That’s the reality of it.”
Having fallen short of his own expectations, the pressure rose as EJ headed home for the historic Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge, where he would be performing in front of his home crowd.
Flying high at home
The first time EJ Obiena ever participated in a street competition, he instantly noticed how minimal the setup was. Even without a stadium, a street pole vault competition can be organized relatively simply — space-wise, it only takes a minimum of 40 meters to set up a runway — and he always believed that the Philippines could pull it off.
“I always thought that this is something that I really truly see that would fit the Philippine market itself,” Obiena explained.
Even when EJ first hatched this idea to bring a world-class pole vault competition to the streets of Metro Manila, he knew he wanted it to do it right — and he knew that doing so would not come easily.
“I never thought that I’ll have enough clout, enough friends, enough connections to actually pull this off.”
But the two-time Olympian is fortunate to have the support of so many Filipinos, including two hugely important players in this historic event: the Atletang Ayala group and the MVP Sports Foundation.
Partnering with these two organizations paved the way for EJ and his team to bring this incredible two-day event to life. The MVP Sports Foundation has long been dedicated to supporting Philippine sports and empowering athletes to reach their full potential.
Atletang Ayala is motivated by a similar purpose. As part of Ayala Foundation’s Leadership Development pillar, the program supports national athletes by offering full-salaried jobs within the Ayala Group, flexible work setups, access to world-class training and medical facilities, and support for international competitions. More than just building champions, the Atletang Ayala program exists to help athletes grow into globally competitive leaders.
Behind the scenes, EJ Obiena and his entire team rallied behind his vision — and it came to life better than even he could have expected.
Rising above the pressure
Hundreds of fans flocked to One Ayala on the first day of the Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge for a Meet and Greet with the international athletes. Later that same day, they watched and supported the National Competition in the Ayala Triangle Gardens, cheering on the country’s finest pole vaulters. And on the following day, during the International Competition, even more Filipinos stood under the rain to witness pole vaulting like they had never before.
EJ could hardly believe the turnout.
“First, I was worried. There were rallies, there was the Volleyball World Championship. You have UAAP, and you have the rain. And I was like, really? Would people come and watch it when it could rain? Would people watch this instead of an indoor competition?” he reflected.
“But I think it exceeded everybody’s expectations. It definitely exceeded mine. And we exceeded the capacity that we were prepared to accommodate. With that, it just shows how much, really, truly the Filipino people love watching sports and live sports itself.”
All of the work that went into this event was further validated by the praise from the international competitors. They all shared the same sentiment: that Filipino fans bring a different kind of energy.
As World No. 23 Matt Ludwig shared during the event, “In my personal experience in the last six years…this has been the most outgoing, the most welcoming community, city, nation as a whole to welcome in just a couple superstars in our sport and really, really show out all the love.”
EJ could have easily counted this as a win already. But as an elite athlete, he is not one to settle, and before the competition, he felt the pressure mount to a higher level.
“It was organized because it was my idea. I know a lot of time and effort was given and put into that competition, and we want the headlines to be of me winning. I knew that a lot is on the line,” he openly admitted. “And most of the field actually beat me in the World Championship. So the pressure was definitely there.”
It’s a good thing EJ Obiena thrives under pressure.
His years of experience competing in the biggest pole vault competitions around the world shone brightly at the Ayala Triangle Gardens on the day of the competition. Clearing his season-best 5.80 meters in two attempts, he edged out Thibaut Collet to claim the gold medal — and on home soil, to make the victory even sweeter.
EJ sighed in relief. “I really, I’ve not been happy for quite some time this season. I always felt like I either got away with it, or I’ve been struggling, or unlucky, and all these things. And finally, there’s something that actually went right…
“I do remember that it’s like the last attempt, I was like, ‘I don’t give a damn if I land on the box, I’m going to swing this, I’m going to commit to this jump as committed as I could be…
“So it’s not just happy. It’s like, I can’t even describe it. It’s even more. It’s maybe equal to like, when I first won my world championship medal.”
Aiming higher
The Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge exceeded even EJ Obiena’s high standards. It even impressed all the visiting athletes, who are no strangers to competing in world-class events all over the world. And yet, he is already thinking about how it could be done better should the event come back for another run.
EJ is keeping his fingers crossed.
“One of my greatest motivations and why I do what I do is to provide Filipino people pride and sense of like, ‘Hey, if EJ could do it in that field of European- [or] American-dominated sport, why can’t we compete with them as well?’
“That’s something I truly believe in.”
The Asian record-holder is uncontested as the best pole vaulter the Philippines has ever seen, but he hopes that he won’t be the last. A part of his vision includes an athlete — or even more — who might just surpass his sterling records.
On top of his fully-loaded schedule as an elite athlete, Obiena continues to find time to give back to the country. In 2024, fresh off his fourth-place finish at the Paris Olympics, he announced a long-term partnership with MILO to help build sustainable pole vault programs in the Philippines. The initiative aims to train both athletes and coaches, while also developing world-class facilities across the country to grow the sport from the ground up.
And he’s already been putting the wheels in motion.
EJ Obiena inaugurated his first pole vault facility in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, in November 2024, and there are plans in place to open even more across the country. This is what he calls the “Six Meter Initiative,” his way of creating more opportunities for local athletes to succeed in the sport, and perhaps even surpass his own records.
Obiena is undoubtedly one of the biggest reasons for the rise in pole vault in the Philippines, and with more young athletes looking up to the standards he’s already set, the likelihood of the country seeing more champions at the Southeast Asian Games, or the Asian Games, or even the Olympics, rises higher and higher.
But beyond building a pool of talent for the sport, EJ also added, “This sport has given me a lot. It’s given me so much experience and learnings, and all of these things, and all it took for me to be able to do this was to be able to try it; to have that convenience of — I want to try pole vaulting.
“Not everybody would be an Olympian, but maybe some would get a scholarship in universities, get fulfilled in dreams. At the very least, they have fun.”
In EJ’s ideal world, the Philippines would have more dedicated sports centers where Filipino athletes could have the opportunity to, in his words, “dive into their craft.” Speaking from his experiences training in Italy, he noted that facilities, such as the ones he’s trained in, may not guarantee success, but they do create breeding grounds for it.
“In a perfect world, the perfect Philippines for sports, we would have sports hubs that can house athletes or national athletes and provide them the possibility to train, recover, and focus.”
While the Philippines has structures in place for Filipino athletes, there is still a long way to go. As EJ says, “Every little bit counts.”
These aren’t merely words. Already, the initiatives EJ Obiena has been pouring his heart into — from his grassroots efforts to the Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge — have proven worthwhile.
“I just got a report yesterday from the first [pole vault facility] that we opened in Laoag,” he proudly shared with an ear-to-ear smile, “We now have 21 more boys using the facility and 12 girls…I’m getting goosebumps.”
EJ has once said that he hopes that he won’t be the last Filipino pole vaulter to make it like he did.
He has definitely set some steep standards, tough to surpass. But he is also building runways that could someday catapult another Filipino champion above that crossbar.
Text ANNIKA CANIZA
Photography JUSTIN REYES assisted by DOM PAMATMAT
Creative Direction CAS ASEOCHE
Official Venue Partner AYALA FOUNDATION, INC.
Shot on Location AYALA TRIANGLE GARDENS
Official Clothing Partners PORSCHE DESIGN and PUMA
Hair and Makeup HANNA PECHON
Sittings Editor ANNIKA CANIZA
Production Coordination ANTHONY MENDOZA
Special Thanks AYALA FOUNDATION, INC. and VMG ASIA