Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games. POC Media.MANILA — EJ Obiena will defend his gold medal while also trying to break his own Asian Games record in the men’s pole vault as he leads a 24-member Philippine athletics team in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Games.
Philippine Athletics and Track and Field Association (PATAFA) president Terry Capistrano said the team is in harness for the competition, which starts Wednesday at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.
Joining Obiena are medal hopefuls John Cabang Tolentino, Lauren Hoffman, and Victoria Bossong, but Capistrano admitted he could not make any medal predictions.
“It’s so difficult to gauge or make any prediction about our medal chances. But we do believe our quality athletes will surprise us,” Capistrano said. “They have been working really hard since they arrived here in Nagoya despite the rains. They really conditioned themselves.”
Tolentino is the 2025 Bangkok Southeast Asian Games champion in the hurdles and an Olympian, alongside Hoffman, while Filipino-American Bossong, according to PATAFA coaches, has the numbers to contend for podium finishes in the middle-distance races.
Obiena owns the Asian record of 6.00 meters and the Asian Games record of 5.90 meters, which he set in Hangzhou three years ago.
Besides Tolentino in the 110-meter hurdles, Hoffman in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, Bossong in the women’s 800 meters, and Obiena, the other national athletes are Yacine Guermali in the 5,000 meters; Sonny Wagdos in the 5,000 meters and marathon; Richard Solaño and Artjoy Torregosa in the marathon; and Neil Michael Catral in the 200 meters.
The other athletes are Anfernee Lorena in the 100 meters, Jessica Rose Laurence in the women’s 100 meters, Zion Rose Nelson in the women’s 100 and 200 meters, Kristina Marie Knott in the relays, Hussein Loraña in the 800 meters, Naomi Johnson in the 200 meters, Diana Pama in the relays, Lanz Arcenal in the 400 meters, and Michael Carlo del Prado in the 400 meters.
Completing the cast are veterans Janry Ubas in the long jump and Leonard Grospe in the high jump, along with Gabriel Borado in the 400 meters, Nathaniel Seiler in the marathon race walk, Frederick Ramirez in the relays, and Kent Francis Jardin in the 100 meters and relays.
“These athletes are all capable of making the final round,” Capistrano said. “Incredibly challenging, so we will take it from there and hopefully podium finishes.”
Prior to their arrival in Nagoya, the athletes, except for Obiena and Guermali, trained at Nippon Sports Science University from September 14 to 20.