By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA Up against the very best, EJ Obiena can’t seem to do the right thing as he struggled and finished eighth on Thursday, March 13 (early Friday, Philippine time) at the IFU Arena in Uppsala, Sweden. The world No. 4 Obiena could only hurdle 5.65 meters to settle for the highest placing through a countback among Belgium’s Ben Broeders and France’s Renaud Lavillenie after the three veterans tallied identical heights. Broeders finished ninth and Lavillenie managed 10th and last. As expected, world record holder and two-time Olympic champion Mondo Duplantis wowed his hometown crowd by capturing the gold medal with a 6.05-meter effort, while Paris Olympics bronze winner Emmanouil Karalis of Greece clinched the silver in 6.00m. Two-time Olympic medalist Sam Kendricks of the United States, registered a season-best 5.90m for the bronze. Obiena cleared his opening height of 5.50m with ease and had little trouble at 5.65m. But he struggled when he moved up at 5.80m, failing in all his three attempts. His best for the year is 5.80m which he set at the Orlen Copernicus Cup in Torun, Poland last month, but he finished fourth at the Paris Olympics with 5.90m. Duplantis, for his part, was impressive, as always, clearing all 5.65m, 5.90m, 6.00 and 6.05m on his first try. He tried 6.28m in an attempt to erase his new world record of 5.27m he just established two weeks ago in France, but was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Australian Kurtis Marschall came in fourth with 5.90m, followed by France’s Thibaut Collet (5.90m), Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen (5.80m) and Turkey’s Ersu Sasma (5.80m). All invited participants in this indoor gala event were Olympians. The Mondo Classic serves as Obiena’s last indoor event before he focuses his preparations in the outdoor season, where he would be competing in three major events in the Asian Championships in Gumi, South Korea on May 21 to 31, the World Outdoor Championships in Tokyo, Japan on Sept. 13 to 21, and the Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand on Dec. 7 to 19.