Ano ang nagbigay inspirasyon kay EJ Obiena na magpole vaulting? | Surprise Guest with Pia Arcangel - video Dailymotion

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Bilang isa sa mga mahuhusay na atleta sa larangan ng pole vaulting, ano nga ba ang naging inspirasyon ni EJ Obiena para tahakin ang sports na ito? Alamin sa video.

Transcript

00:00I'm wondering though, how did you get into pole vaulting?

00:03Because usually in the Philippines, that's not the first thing you think of.

00:07Yeah, exactly, basketball.

00:08And you're also a pretty tall guy, right?

00:11There's basketball, there's volleyball, lots of different sports.

00:14Although I know that your dad was an athlete, right?

00:17But you, in particular, how did you get into pole vaulting?

00:20I think I was introduced by my dad, you know.

00:23I can't deny that.

00:24My dad was the guy who put me in pole vaulting.

00:27He's the guy who I looked up to, you know, as a kid.

00:30You see your dad as your modern day superhero, you know.

00:34He does things that you can't, you know.

00:36He lifts you, he throws you in the air, you know.

00:38These are the things that my dad used to do.

00:40And anything that he does is amazing for me.

00:43And imagine seeing it from my eyes.

00:46Someone flinging themselves like 16 feet up in the air.

00:49So it's out of this world.

00:51And then, of course, you know, as a kid, you want this flight.

00:54You want to experience some free fall or some kind of sense of flight.

00:58Like what Superman and these superheroes that we watched when we were kids.

01:02And the easiest thing that I saw was pole vaulting.

01:04And the closest thing that my dad can give me was pole vaulting.

01:07And then I basically got into it.

01:09And then, you know, it slowly progressed into an opportunity to get scholarship.

01:15And an opportunity for me to be recruited by, you know, big universities in Manila.

01:21That's when it started to be more of a sport than just some pastime.

01:27Something that is fun for me.

01:28I kind of got into it and university got recruited.

01:31And that's where basically it started to be serious and represented Philippines and so on and so forth.

01:37Do you still remember the first time you tried pole vaulting?

01:41Like the first time you ran and jumped over the bar?

01:45I don't think I can remember it vividly.

01:47I just know that I was not trying to jump over the bar.

01:50I was trying to get over the mattress, the pit where we actually land.

01:55You know, being a small kid, you know.

01:57And then my dad is actually pulling the pole across.

02:01And I just basically hang.

02:03And then, you know, kind of goes over the, not even the bars, just a set of foam pits.

02:09So that's what was the earliest memory of pole vaulting for me.

02:13And then when did you realize that,

02:15Wait, I can do this as a career.

02:17Like I can really shift my entire focus to pole vaulting.

02:22Well, I never really saw it as a career.

02:24And I think I'm one of those athletes that I understand that this is not a career.

02:30This is my opportunity to make history.

02:32You know what I mean?

02:33As an athlete, I didn't see it first like, oh, I'm good at it.

02:37No, I was not good at it.

02:38You know, I was decent in Philippines.

02:40I was good maybe in university and the Philippines.

02:43But competitively, outside of the Philippines, I was terrible.

02:46I didn't make the world juniors, which, you know, a lot of the athletes at that time,

02:51at my age, were able to go to.

02:54So I think I wanted that Olympic dream.

02:57And I really felt that I was close enough to make it a reality.

03:01But then, you know, I got injured.

03:03And I think that kind of just put a bit more importance.

03:07You know, you know what they say when you lost something,

03:09and then you're given an opportunity to have it again.

03:12You know, you just want it a little bit more.

03:14You know, you understand the value of it.

03:16And when pole voting was took away from me back in 2017,

03:20I had, you know, basically two options in six months,

03:23like continue my studies in USD and, you know, live a normal life.

03:27I've done my part as an athlete or pursue my dream to be an Olympian

03:31and try to make Tokyo Olympics.

03:33It didn't make a lot of sense at that time.

03:35But I said to my parents, you know, I would regret it when come

03:39the time where I can't do this anymore.

03:41I would regret it not trying.

03:42I didn't see it as a career.

03:44You know, I just saw it that this is my opportunity.

03:47And it meant so much for me that I needed to try.

03:51It was a hard, you know, as Filipinos,

03:53it is a hard decision to tell my parents that I'm going to focus

03:56on pole voting for the next two years.

03:58I'm going to take a leave of absence from my university

04:02and study as minimal as I needed and pursue this dream.

04:11I'm going to take a leave of absence from my university

04:13and study as minimal as I needed and pursue this dream.

Ano ang nagbigay inspirasyon kay EJ Obiena na magpole vaulting? | Surprise Guest with Pia Arcangel

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