AMID A standout performance on the runway, Filipino bet EJ Obiena came inches away from a medal finish in the 2024 Summer Olympics Men’s Pole Vault Finals, falling just short of clearing the 5.95m mark. The world’s second-ranked pole vaulter wrapped up his finals campaign in the Olympiad with a heartbreaking fourth-place finish. The event took place earlier today at the Stade de France in Paris, France.
The earlier rounds saw Obiena breezing through the heights with impressive ease, progressing past the 5.50m bar and clearing the 5.70m height on his first attempts. However, the Tondo native encountered his first foul in the competition when he struck the 5.80m bar on his descent during his initial attempt. This mishap would end up haunting him by the end of the meet, spelling the difference between a medal and fourth place.
Opting to skip the failed height, Obiena braved the odds by putting his two remaining attempts on the line at 5.85m. Keeping his calm under fire, the former Blue Eagle’s strategic move proved efficient as he managed to leap past the bar in first attempt and secure a top-eight finish.
Obiena then proceeded to effortlessly clear the heart-pounding 5.90m bar which kept his continued presence in the medal chase. With five remaining vaulters, the trackster sought to recover his stride of composure after an unsuccessful first attempt at 5.95m.
Striving to stay in contention, Obiena came close to clearing the bar at his second try on the same height. However, the decorated contender’s quest for a laurel was ultimately thwarted as he struggled to surpass the final mark.
Both Obiena and Greek pole vaulter Emmanouil Karalis finished the Olympics with a mark of 5.90m. However, due to Obiena missing an attempt at the 5.80m-mark while Karalis went perfect despite going 0-for-3 at 5.95m, the former crashed out of the podium while the latter bagged bronze.
Moments later, world’s first-ranked Armand Duplantis of Sweden shattered his personal best and season best by setting both a new world record and Olympic record after clearing 6.25m on his third attempt en route to gold. Meanwhile, Sam Kendricks of the United States claimed the silver medal by clearing the same 5.95m height that had stumped both Karalis and Obiena.
Although Obiena’s final rank is certainly a great improvement over his 11th-place finish back in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, his narrow miss for a medal left him in tears following the contest.
“I apologize. I promised I [was] gonna go back after Tokyo and do better. I did, but it didn’t change [much] in my book, I still came up short. I’m really sorry, I apologize for it, we’ll see how it goes,” an emotional Obiena shared in an interview with One Sports.
Asia’s pole vault record holder had previously played for the Ateneo de Manila University in UAAP Season 75, where he broke the Philippine junior record in his rookie year.
In other athletics events, hurdlers Lauren Hoffman and John Cabang were relegated to the repechage of the 400m and 110m hurdles, respectively, with Hoffman being eliminated earlier in the day.
