KRISTEL SATUMBAGA

Up against Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis, EJ Obiena blinked and finished a far sixth in the prestigious Bauhaus Galan Wanda Diamond League meet in Stockholm, Sweden Thursday (Friday in Manila).

The Tokyo Olympian could only clear 5.73 meters – a far cry from his winning performance of 5.92m at the Taby Stavhoppsgala on Tuesday.

Duplantis, an American-born Swedish, improved his own outdoor world record by posting 6.16m – one centimeter higher than his previous mark set in Rome two years back.

The meet is only Obiena’s second tournament since contracting Covid-19 last month that saw him miss two earlier scheduled events.

He treated his recent performance as a learning experience.

“You win some… then you learn some,” Obiena wrote on social media, accompanied by a video clip of his performance.

Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Christopher Nilsen and 2016 Rio Games champion Thiago Braz – who settled for third behind Obiena in the Taby meet – both cleared the bar at 5.93m, but Nilsen claimed the silver via countback.

Pal Haugen Lillefosse and three-time world indoor champion Renaud Lavillenie came in fourth and fifth with similar leap of 5.83m.