Filipino pole vault star EJ Obiena ruled the ISTAF Berlin meet at the Olympiastadion on Monday, clearing 5.82 meters to claim the men’s pole vault gold and his ninth gold medal of 2026.
The clearance is Obiena’s season best and extends a year that has seen him quietly re-establish himself as one of the world’s most consistent performers on the international circuit. Multiple PH outlets (GMA News, MSN/Philippine News Agency) framed the ISTAF win as a bounce-back statement after a quieter stretch of the summer, and noted it is the Filipino’s fifth career win on German soil.
5.82m and a season-best
ISTAF Berlin is one of the long-running invitational meets on the European athletics calendar, and Obiena has now made it a habit of winning there. The 5.82m clearance is a season best, and continues his push back toward the form that earned him the Asian record of 6.00m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, where he took silver behind Armand “Mondo” Duplantis.
Obiena now sits on nine golds in 2026, a haul built across Asian Indoor Championships (Tianjin), Asian Athletics Championships, World Indoor Championships, the Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge in Makati, and a string of European summer meets. He had earlier taken bronze at the Asian Indoor Championships before the indoor calendar pivoted outdoors.
Why this win matters
- The new-look coaching setup is working. Obiena moved to Athens in 2026 to train under coach Marcin Szczepanski, ending a 12-year run with Ukrainian coach Vitaly Petrov. The ISTAF result is the most emphatic data point yet that the transition has not cost him a step.
- Germany keeps being good to him. ISTAF Berlin is the fifth German-meet gold of Obiena’s career. The Philippines’ only current world-ranked pole vaulter tends to peak in European summer, and Berlin is increasingly his “second home” meet.
- The 5.86m barrier is the next conversation. 5.82m is the kind of clearance that opens the door to the 5.85-5.90m band that decides Diamond League podiums. A 5.86m clearance this season would put him inside the world top 5 again.
What’s next for Obiena
ISTAF is one of the last hard date-tests before the 2026 World Athletics Continental Tour finals and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic qualifying window opens in earnest. With the Budapest 2023 silver and Paris 2024 fourth place already on his resume, Obiena is the only Filipino track-and-field athlete in serious Olympic-medal conversation for LA. The 2026 Diamond League and the Asian Athletics Championships are the next two checkpoints to watch.
He is also a brand figure at home: TCL Philippines has used him as a regional ambassador, and the Pole Vault Manila Challenge that he helped organize at Ayala Triangle last year was a Continental Tour bronze event. Expect ASTIG to keep tracking the next ISTAF-style result the moment it lands.
