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Metro Exclusive: Athlete Elijah Cole for Penshoppe PLAY

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<p>In the recent 2025 SEA (South East Asian) Games, Filipino-American pole vaulter <strong>Kevin Elijah “Eli” Cole</strong> majestically cleared 5.20 meters and clinched a bronze medal, contributing to the historic “double podium” finish for the Philippines with gold medalist <strong>EJ Obiena</strong> for the pole vault event. Observers and followers regarded his win as a grand comeback after a heartbreaking result during the 2023 Cambodia games.</p><p>Though the rising athlete appeared to be shy at first, he eventually became comfortable and confident during the course of the conversation.</p><p>“Last year, I feel like I kind of rediscovered the sport—pole vault—in a more confident way,” Eli began.</p><p>“Not that I treat it casually, but it has just become more of, like, a natural thing that I just do. Rediscovering the sport that has led to everything positive this past season—whether it was jumping 5.40 meters again and getting a bronze at SEA Games—it&#x27;s just that fundamental mental push and that mental focus that set the tone. It just made competing in the sport so much better for me,” the 27-year-old pole vaulter thoughtfully shared. Eli is also the reigning three-time consecutive national champion, from 2023 to 2025, at the ICTSI Philippine Athletics Championships.</p><p>His recent achievements felt like a validation for all the hard work and mental focus he’s been putting in for the sport.</p><p>“Before, it was ‘I have to jump high, I have to get him, I have to get a medal,’ but it was more [of] switching the focus into just doing this because I love it. And I do love it! It&#x27;s what leads to medals, so it&#x27;s like you can&#x27;t just run to the finish line, you have to think about what you have to do to get to the finish line,” Eli explained.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:959px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769670186269elijah cole for penshoppe play 1.png" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner">Photo courtesy of Penshoppe</span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>From skateboarding to pole vaulting</strong></div><p>Before Eli even considered pole vaulting, he confessed that he was more of a skater boy growing up in the U.S.</p><p>“It&#x27;s actually because of my parents that I got into this pole vaulting. They&#x27;re fans of the sport, so long story short, I wanted to be a pro skater so bad when I was a kid, and I was really into it,” he began.</p><p>The succeeding part of the story showed the sacrifice he made to be pragmatic about his future.</p><p>“[However,] it was not going to get me into college, and so my parents took away my skateboard,s and they told me to do some after-school activity. It led to track and field, and there was a pole vault coach there. It&#x27;s very hard to find a free pole vault coach, so he changed my life and got me into the sport. I wasn&#x27;t going to come back out for the first season, but he brought me back into the sport,” he continued, marking his first foray into the sport back in 2014.</p><p>Over time, Eli has grown to love pole vaulting, especially the supportive community built around it. In a way, he found solace and comfort in the fact that he found parallels between skateboarding and pole vaulting—both sports are more about having fun even when faced with rivals and opponents.</p><div><br/></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-0" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSe-2SfEUS0/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=720&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A3320935.9000000022%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br/></div><p>“Pole vault is just like hanging out with your friends, and you&#x27;re trying to jump as high as you can. I think I can compare it to the skateboarding community very well. They&#x27;re very similar, so it&#x27;s easy to thrive in it. With skateboarding, it&#x27;s you doing the trick, and then they do tricks, and you&#x27;re just having fun. [Like with] pole vault, you&#x27;re just jumping high, and they&#x27;re jumping high, and you&#x27;re having fun,” the young athlete explained.</p><p>Asked who he considers his role model, he smiled and shared his thoughts about it.</p><p>“It&#x27;s a mix of a lot of people. I could just choose the easy answer and say EJ [Obiena], but I’d like to say my parents. Mom and Dad specifically are just the biggest supporters ever. I want to touch back into the mental side of this sport—like being confident, and it’s easier to be confident when you have a good support system. I just want to be like my parents and just be there for whoever,” he pensively paid tribute to his parents, <strong>Calvin</strong> and <strong>Donna Cole</strong>.</p><p>Still, his love for his parents does not diminish the influence that Filipino pole vaulting pride EJ Obiena has on him.</p><p>“EJ is just setting the standard so high and so well in the best way possible. He&#x27;s just such a cool dude on and off the runway. Him setting that kind of standard, where it&#x27;s like ‘this is what Filipino people are,’ it&#x27;s a big bar to chas,e but he’s definitely a cool role model to have,” he shared.</p><div><br/></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-8" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DSgG31vD0Km/embed/captioned/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=720&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A8%2C%22os%22%3A4445294.5%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="690" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-8" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br/></div><div></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>Brand new year, grand plans</strong></div><p>If 2025 was a year of redemption and quite a confidence-building season for Eli, 2026 is all about sustaining the momentum and consistency. He also has a clear target: the Asian Games.</p><p>“The big goal is to make it to the Asian Games, and to make it there, I have to jump at least 5.50 meters, which would be a personal best by 9 centimeters— which is totally in the bag,” he confidently said, adding that he just needs to work harder and find that groove again. He shared that he has to build and build every weekend with meets, starting with the<strong> Reno Pole Vault Summit</strong>, and reach the championship season in May.</p><p>“There will be meets every weekend for me,” he casually dropped the information, setting his sights on his goal. “You know if I make 5.50 meters, it&#x27;s great, but I want to jump higher than that and, obviously, higher than that is overdue for sure.”</p><div><br/></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-6" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKmQn55xxR4/embed/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=720&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&amp;rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A6%2C%22os%22%3A4391428.6000000015%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="" frameBorder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-6" scrolling="no" style="background:white;max-width:540px;width:calc(100% - 2px);border-radius:3px;border:1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219);box-shadow:none;display:block;margin:0px 0px 12px;min-width:326px;padding:0px"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br/></div><p>On top of his goals as a national athlete, he has also been named the newest face and brand ambassador of <strong>Penshoppe PLAY</strong>, the soon-to-be-launched active wear and athleisure line of the homegrown clothing brand.</p><p>“It&#x27;s really cool that they picked me to be a part of this because it just fits so right for me. The balance of athleisure and being athletic but also being cool and having that chill lifestyle—it’s a perfect balance,” he told <strong>Metro.Style</strong>.</p><p>He’s so elated and so into it that he’s already picked out his favorites from the Penshoppe PLAY active wear collection.</p><p>“I honestly love the running hat style. I wear hats all the time, so I love just the style of it, and I love tracksuits. It’s really cool, and I think people are going to be excited about that. The tracksuit paired with the hat— it&#x27;s unstoppable. It&#x27;s a mix of everything that I love,” Eli enthusiastically said, even pointing to the cap he’s wearing from the collection.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:959px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769673974158elijah cole for penshoppe play 2.png" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner">Photo courtesy of Penshoppe</span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><p>His new role is so apropos for his inner skater boy, making it extra fun for him. “I&#x27;m still in the skater world and wearing really baggy casual clothes. I love skate tees,” Eli added.</p><p>When he’s off duty as a pole vaulter, he’s still skateboarding and, surprisingly, getting really serious in photography. Because of his love for it, he also got into physical media.</p><p>“This new year, I want to have like a physical art project every single month with prints or like a zine. It&#x27;s going to be from the SEA Games. I shot four rolls of film and got a bunch. I brought my digital camera behind the scenes so it&#x27;s going be about my whole experience. It’s a cool little project that&#x27;s definitely my biggest thing right now,” he beamed, excited about artistic pursuits. </p><p>As new experiences, new roles, and a new season set in this year, Eli is holding on to valuable advice from a pole vault coach, <strong>Coach Bill Halverson</strong>.</p><p>“One of the biggest lessons that led me to finally figure things out is to just enjoy the process and to just have fun on the pole vault runway. My coach, Coach Halverson, is 70 years old, and he’s a pole vaulter. All he says is to just enjoy, and you will shine. It’s something he’s always said to me for the last five or six years, but it wasn&#x27;t until later this year that I really kind of considered that it&#x27;s what led to the success. When you&#x27;re enjoying it, the more you just become attuned to your sport and with your body. It finally got [me] comfortable on the runway, and that&#x27;s really important,” Eli concluded.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong></strong></div><p>Lead photos courtesy of <strong>Penshoppe</strong></p><div></div>

<p>Kevin Elijah Cole maintains momentum as he gears up to take bolder steps and leaps that will propel him further in the pole vaulting scene. </p>

Kevin Elijah Cole maintains momentum as he gears up to take bolder steps and leaps that will propel him further in the pole vaulting scene.

Jumping Higher and Enjoying the Process—Rising Star Athlete Elijah Cole Sets His Sights on New Goals

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Jumping Higher and Enjoying the Process—Rising Star Athlete Elijah Cole Sets His Sights on New Goals

Grace Diez

Published Jan 29, 2026 04:30 PM PHT

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Updated Jan 29, 2026 04:32 PM PHT

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