National team coach Emerson Obiena, father of world No. 2 EJ Obiena, won a gold medal in the men’s 55-59 category in the 2nd Asian Masters Athletics Championship at New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.
The elder Obiena, who took home a silver and a bronze medal as a national athlete in the 1993 and 2005 Southeast Asian Games, respectively, set a new meet record after clearing 3.60 meters to win according to the social media page of Pilipinas Run-Jump-Throw.
Obiena was responsible for exposing EJ to the sport and was one of his first coaches before training under Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov.
Emerson’s brother, Edward Obiena, took home the silver with a clearance of 2.70 m while Panhacharam Jayakumar of Sri Lanka got the bronze with a 2.30 meters.
The Philippines also collected two more pole vault gold medals after Djundi Binas won the men’s 40-44 category after clearing 3.50 m and Riezel Buenaventura cleared 3.25 m in the women’s, a new meet record in the category.
