How they qualified for Paris: Obiena, Hoffman, Cabang

‘HOW they qualified for Paris’ enters the home stretch of its 7-part series where The Manila Times takes a look at how the Paris Olympics-bound Filipino athletes qualified for the sports spectacle.

Lone representatives of their national teams — rower Joanie Delgaco, fencer Samantha Catantan, and judoka Kiyomi Watanabe — got featured first.

Golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina came second, while Sanchez and Hatch’s path to the Olympiad was the third part.

Weightlifters Vanessa Sarno, Elreen Ando, and John Ceniza also got their moment at fourth, and they’re going to be followed by another trio this time from the athletics team of pole vaulter Ernest “EJ” Obiena as well as hurdlers Lauren Hoffman and John Cabang.

Obiena, the first Filipino to have qualified for the Paris Games, vaulted the Olympic entry standard height of 5.82 m at the Bauhaus-Galan at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium in Sweden in July of last year.

The Olympic qualification for men’s pole vault started on July 1, 2023, and any pole vaulter that clears at least 5.82 m in a World Athletics-sanctioned tournament from that date on punches a ticket for Paris.

A Tokyo Olympian, the 28-year-old Obiena, ranked no. 2 in the world, is one of the favorites to snag a medal for the Philippines at the Paris Olympiad.

EJ Obiena. PHOTO BY RIO DELUVIO

Obiena last competed at the Wanda Diamond League – Meeting De Paris, last July 7, finishing at joint fourth in his final competition before the Olympics.

Owner of the Asian record clearance of 6.0 m, Obiena has made the podium four times out of the seven tournaments he’s joined in the outdoor season.

The 25-year-old Hoffman and 22-year-old Cabang did not make the entry standard time but still qualified for the Games by finishing in the top 40 in the world ranking of their events.

Hoffman finished 39th in women’s 400 m, while Cabang finished 30th in the men’s 110 m rankings.

Hoffman and Cabang, the final members of the Philippine 22-athlete Olympic delegation, are first-timers in the Games.