Tokyo Olympics-bound Ernest John Obiena will once again test his level of competitiveness this weekend.
Obiena will join a series of European indoor competitions starting this Sunday in Karlsruhe, Germany.
The 24-year-old Obiena will take part in the resumption of the International Association of Athletics Federation’s World Indoor Tour in the southwestern German city.
Obiena’s mom Jeannette said he will be travelling alone to Germany after getting the nod of authorities from Formia, Italy, where he trains, in compliance with health and safety protocols concerning coronavirus transmissions.
“Mag-isa lang siyang pupunta doon (Germany). Hindi kasama ang coach at ang training partner,” said Jeannette.
This year’s World Indoor Tour got underway in Boston last Saturday with the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.
The start of the 26-day tour includes stops in Torun (Feb. 6), Madrid (Feb. 8) and Birmingham (Feb. 16), before the finale in Düsseldorf (Feb. 20).
Obiena was also allowed to join the Torun leg in Poland next weekend, his second tournament in the World Tour.
After this, Obiena will join regular European indoor meets in Berlin, Lievin and Lodz in the coming weeks of February.
Obiena is coming out of an almost fourth-month layoff.
In Obiena’s last outing in Rome last September, Obiena tied with Belgian Ben Broeders for second place with a leap of 5.8 meters, smashing his previous 2020 best of 5.74 in a gold-medal performance in Ostrava, the Czech Republic a week prior.
In the same meet, Armand Duplantis made heads turn when he broke Sergey Bubka’s world outdoor record at 6.15 meters on his second attempt.
Former world record holder Renaud Lavillenie finished fourth with 5.70m.
Obiena’s stint in the southern part of Europe was done with the help of coach Vitaly Petrov, and the guidance of 2016 Rio champion Thiago Braz of Brazil.
IAAF World Indoor Tour Tour points will be up for grabs in seven other events and focus will on the star-studded women’s pole vault, which features the third head-to-head of the year between world and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi of Greece and rising US star Katie Nageotte.
Stefanidi won the gold in their last meeting following countback at the Pole Vault Summit in Reno 13 days ago, when both cleared 4.74m.
Then, Nageotte gained the upper hand in Boston, topping 4.86m on her first attempt to notch the first tour win of her career. It was also an early season world lead and Nageotte’s second highest leap ever.