EJ Obiena, the holder of the Asian pole-vault record, recovered from a lackluster showing the last time around by successfully defending the Jump and Fly in Hechingen, Germany, yesterday.

The 26-year-old gold winner from the Southeast Asian Games cleared 5.80 meters to win the yearly competition for the second consecutive year.

He defeated Huang Bokai of China and Vincent Hobbie of Germany, who won silver and bronze with jumps of 5.50 and 5.10 meters, respectively.

Even while the victory made up for his sixth-place result in the Wanda Diamond League last Friday in Stockholm, Sweden, it was still a far cry from his career-high 5.93m mark from the Golden Roof Challenge in Innsbruck, Austria, last year.

However, Obiena graciously accepted the victory in an effort to recover from his abject performance in Stockholm.

In this same competition held in Mossingen, where he jumped to 5.85m, the Tokyo Olympian also triumphed.

The World Athletics Championships, which will take place in Eugene, Oregon from July 15 to 24, are Obie’s next major competition.