Obiena says sorry for narrowly missing Olympic podium

MANILA, Philippines -- "Feels like the end of the world."

Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena apologized for barely missing the podium of the men’s pole vault final early Tuesday morning (Manila time).

Obiena wound up fourth in the competition, missing the podium via countback as he failed to clear 5.95 meters.

Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiena became emotional after placing fourth in the men's pole vault finals at the Olympic Games.

Obiena opened up about the pain of missing out on an Olympic medal and clarifies he is supportive of the #Paris2024 medalists.#OSOnTheSpot #OlympicGames pic.twitter.com/xViBtugpJJ

— One Sports (@OneSportsPHL) August 5, 2024

In an interview with One Sports after the competition, an emotional Obiena apologized for not bringing home a medal.

“I apologize. I promised I was going to go back after Tokyo and do better. I did, but it wasn’t really… it didn’t change in my book,” he said.

“I still came up short. I’m sorry. I apologize for it. We’ll see how it goes,” he added.

Obiena, back in Tokyo, wound up 11th place in the final.

Three years later, the 28-year-old struggled in the start of the qualifications before getting his rhythm and punching a ticket to the final round.

The Filipino and Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis both were unable to clear the height, but the former used up all three of his attempts as the latter decided to skip after faulting in his first attempt.

Obiena not clearing 5.80 meters also proved costly, as it ultimately gave the edge to Karalis who cleared all his attempts but 5.95.

“It’s painful. I missed the medal by one jump and it wasn’t far. All my attempts at 95. Yeah, disappointed,” he said.

“It was literally the same height and I missed it by one attempt. One attempt at an Olympic medal. That’s something.”

The World No. 2 pole vaulter bared that after missing the podium, his coach Vitaly Petrov told him that it’s not the end of the world, but insisted that it feels like it.

“He said that it’s not the end of the world, but it feels like it is the end of the world right now. I needed to take time to kinda reflect on the whole thing and everything that I’ve been through,” he said.

“That’s where I think my emotions kinda come out because it’s not something that I expected, it’s not something I was aiming for.”

The pride of Tondo also underscored just how beautiful -- and brutal -- sports could be.

“I missed one attempt and I think that really defined the medalist to the non-medalist. Sports is beautiful but also brutal and I understand that,” he stressed.

“Going in, like I said, consistency is I’m lacking, I felt like I needed a little bit more time, but it’s the Olympics, it’s not gonna wait for anybody. Just here doing everything that I can,” he added.

“Even with the fourth place, I’ve done everything I can to be where I’m at and I’m proud of the effort of my team, myself, and everybody who made this possible. But it doesn’t make it less painful.”

And while he is happy for his peers who won the medals -- Sweden’s Armand Duplantis for gold, USA’s Sam Kendricks for silver and Karalis for bronze -- the pain is just too much.

“I’m happy for everybody that got the medal, they deserve it. I’m happy for my friends. But it doesn’t give me a little bit of shade of less pain. I think you can feel both emotions at the same time, and I’m still processing it.”