EJ Obiena narrowly missed securing a medal in the men’s pole vault event at the Paris Olympics, finishing fourth on Tuesday (Philippine Time) at the Stade De France.
Obiena attempted 5.95 meters but was unable to clear the bar in all his tries, falling short of Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, the United States’ Sam Kendricks, and Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, who all reached the podium.
Karalis, after skipping 5.95 meters following one miss and failing at six meters, secured the bronze through a countback tiebreaker over Obiena. Kendricks took the silver with a successful 5.95-meter jump on his first try.
Duplantis, the only athlete to clear six meters, won the gold. He then broke Thiago Braz’s Olympic record by setting the bar at 6.1 meters and clearing it on his first attempt. Duplantis further delighted the crowd by breaking his own world record with a 6.25-meter jump on his final attempt of the night.
Despite missing out on a medal, Obiena’s fourth-place finish was a significant improvement from his 11th-place performance in 2021, especially considering the back injury he suffered during the build-up to the event.
Earlier in the day, Lauren Hoffman was eliminated from the women’s 400-meter hurdles, clocking in at 58.28 seconds, well behind the leading runners in Heat 3 of the repechage. Shana Grebo of France and Anna Ryzhykova secured the final two semifinal spots with times of 54.91 and 54.95 seconds, respectively.
The Philippines’ remaining hope for an athletics medal in Paris now rests on John Tolentino, who will compete in the 110-meter hurdles repechage later on Tuesday.
