FILIPINO hero EJ Obiena made history by claiming the silver medal in pole vault in the World Athletics Championships 2023 in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday.

Obiena, looking supremely fit and confident in his biggest battle against the world’s bests, matched his Asian record of 6.00 meters to claim the silver medal and surpass his previous bronze medal finish in Eugene, Oregon last year.

The 27-year-old Filipino champion, who is already assured of a ticket in next year’s Paris Olympics, finished second behind Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis of Sweden in the thrilling pole vault final.

Duplantis, nicknamed Mondo in the international circles, easily secured a second straight world title with a record jump of 6.10 meters.

In successfully defending his title, Duplantis becomes the third man after the legendary Sergey Bubka and Sam Kendricks to successfully defend a world pole vault title.

The 23-year-old American-born Swede, however, failed to break his own world record of 6.22m after two attempts.

Still, Duplantis was satisfied with his performance.

“I’m really happy about all these consecutive golds. I don’t know where this one ranks, but I’m happy to keep winning. This was maybe the craziest atmosphere I’ve ever competed in so it meant a lot to be able to turn on a pole vault show for them. There were so many Swedish supporters here, it almost felt like I was in the Stockholm stadium,” Duplantis was quoted as saying in the worldathletics. org report.

“I’ll be ready for Paris and the Olympics but right now I want to live in the moment and enjoy these World Championships and this title. I’ll celebrate this, then think about Paris,” added the Lousiana-born Duplantis, who established the world standard of 6.22 meters in Clermont- Ferrand last February.

Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Chris Nilsen of the United States and two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist Kurtis Marschall of Australia shared the bronze medal with 5.95 meters.

The pole vault final provided a lot of drama on another hot and humid evening in the Hungarian capital.

Only five vaulters — Duplantis, Obiena, Marschall, Nilsen and Thibaut Collet of France — managed to clear 5.90m during the 13-man final.

As the bar was raised to 6.0m, Duplantis and Obiena easily flew over the height while the other three bidders failed.

Collet was the first to go.

Marschall equalled his personal best of 5.95m and Nilsen matched that height for bronze.

That left Obiena as Duplantis’s last challenger.

With the bar raised to 6.05m, Obiena fell short in his first attempt and Duplantis easily cleared the mark as he did many times in the past.

At 6.10m, Obiena failed in his two jumps and Duplantis wisely secured a second world title by easily soaring over the mark.

The Italy-based Obiena is one of only three Filipinos who competed in Budapest.

Filipino-American bets Eric Cray and Robyn Brown both bowed out of contention in the preliminary heats of the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles.

The three Filipinos’ campaign in the World Athletics Championships is supported by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC)