EJ tested by Chinese bets

World No. 4 pole vaulter EJ Obiena is out to bag a third straight gold medal in the final of the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea, tomorrow with Chinese bets Bokai Huang and Li Chenyang expected to challenge the Filipino for top honors.

- By JOAQUIN M. HENSON

Seven Chinese vaulters are ranked in the world's top 100 with Bokai, 28, the highest at No. 15. The others are No. 24 Li Chenyang, 22, No. 38 Jie Yao, 34, No. 74 Yeng Chen, 24, No. 76 Riu Liu, 20, No. 82 Haoyang Song, 22 and No. 99 Tao Zhong, 22. The next highest-ranked Filipino is No. 301 Hocket de los Santos, 22.

Five more Asians are ranked in the world's top 100. They are Saudi Arabia's No. 38 Hussein Asim Al Hizam, 27, Qatar's No. 70 Seifeldin Heneida Abdesalam, 20 and Japan's No. 83 Tamoya Karasawa, 23, No. 84 Masaki Eijima, 26 and No. 95 Shingo Sawa, 28.