The First Filipino to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics also made the country proud with his gold medal in the 30th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) yesterday.
Obiena demonstrated his skills in the Athletics Stadium and cleared 5.45 meters for his first title in the regional competition.
This record could have been short than his Olympic qualifying record but enough to break the record of 2017 SEA Games champion of Porranot Purahong of Thailand of 5.35 meters.
Obiena had been training in Italy in recent years and has become a top grade pole-vaulter.
He trained under world champions like Serbian coach Vitaly Petrov, former mentor of world and Olympic champion Sergey Bubka and Rio Olympic gold medalist Thiago Braz da Silva of Brazil.
