It truly was a heartbreak in Paris for EJ Obiena who came one place shy of winning the Philippines' first Olympic medal in athletics in 88 years. Obiena instead, had to settle for finishing fourth in the Men's Pole Vault at the Stade de France.
The Filipino ace ended his vault with just 5.90m, with his three unsuccessful efforts at 5.95m, ending any chance of an Olympic medal.
Obiena, an alumnus of the University of Santo Tomas, nearly added a Paris Olympic medal to his already amazing collection, featuring two golds from consecutive World Championships.
Neck to neck for the medal
Although his fourth-place performance was a significant improvement over his 11th-place showing in Tokyo, it was a disappointing outcome for the world-ranked No. 2 athlete, who was expected to be the next Philippine medalist following Carlos Yulo's golden double in gymnastics.
Obiena found it difficult to clear the 5.95-meter height after soaring through the 5.50–5.90-meter mark. The 28-year-old Filipino's strong effort would have placed pressure on Emmanouli Karalis of Greece, who won bronze, to clear the 6.0 meter, the career-best mark of Obiena, in the following round.
Swedish Olympian Armand Duplantis, who won gold in the Tokyo Games, successfully defended his title and established a new record of 6.10 meters. After that, he cleared 6.25 meters to surpass his own world record. American Sam Kendricks then earned the silver medal.
Inconsolable Obiena
“It’s close but not close enough, though,” said an inconsolable Obiena. “Life or sports can be beautiful, but at the same time can be brutal."
Despite the fourth-place finish, Obiena described how he felt after failing to clear the jump in his final attempts.
“In this meet, what matters is a medal. Fourth place is the same as 11th. I fell short and that’s it,” he said.
