The University of Santo Tomas‘ Minecraft Community cheered university alumnus Ernest John “EJ” Obiena who is set to compete in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 men’s pole vault finals on Tuesday.
The community created a blocks-inspired figure of the pole vaulter in action with the following words: “Good luck! EJ Obiena.”
Symbols of the Games are also included in the tribute post. Its caption reads:
“𝘽𝙍𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙃𝙊𝙈𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙂𝙊𝙇𝘿 (yellow heart emoji)
On behalf of the UST Minecraft Community and the whole Thomasian Community, we wish our Thomasian pole vaulter EJ Obiena all the best as he advances to the finals of the Men’s Pole Vault Event on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics!
#Tokyo2020 #Olympics”
The publication material is credited to Robert John Lardizabal.
Obiena saw the post and expressed his gratitude to the Thomasian community, as well as his appreciation of the customized figure.
“Thank you UST Minecraft and the whole Thomasian community for the support and prayers. Awesome Minecraft!” he wrote on Facebook.
Minecraft is a video game in which players create and break apart blocks in three-dimensional worlds.
Last year, a virtual tour of UST through Minecraft stoked freshmen students and alumni as the university implements distance learning in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, sports team UST Growling Tigers also backed Obiena for his upcoming final match by reposting a hyped picture of the pole vaulter from his Facebook and sharing the university’s known battle cry with the hashtag “#GoUSTe.”
Obiena is a former UST trackster who is an electronics engineering student.
He is also the first Filipino to have qualified for Tokyo Olympics after his success in the pole vaulting athletics meet in Italy in 2019.
The 25-year-old is number six in the pole vault rankings of World Athletics.
He will vie for a medal on Tuesday wherein some of his contenders involve top-ranked pole vaulter Armand Duplantis of Sweden, 2016 Rio de Janeiro champion Thiago Braz of Brazil and 2012 London winner Renaud Lavillenie of France.
Pole vault is an athletics event in which the athlete uses a long flexible pole as an aid to jump over a bar.
