MANILA – Ernest Joh "EJ" Obiena barely missed out on securing a medal in the Paris Olympics men's pole vault event, settling for fourth place in the championship match won, as expected, by Sweden's Mondo Duplantis, early Tuesday (PH time) at Stade De France.
Despite seemingly good shots at 5.95 meters, Obiena saw the bar falling in all three tries.
Skipping 5.95 after one miss and fouling in his two tries at six meters, Greece's Emmanouil Karalis took the bronze through the countback tiebreaker over Obiena.
Obiena could have beaten Karalis for the bronze if he cleared 5.95 meters
The United States' Sam Kendricks, who cleared 5.95 meters in just one try, took the silver.
Being the only player to clear six meters, Duplantis decided to go first for Thiago Braz's Olympic record of 6.03 meters by telling the staff to set the bar at 6.1 meters.
In just one try, Duplantis broke the record with ease.
He then tried to break the world record that he set in Xiamen, China in April and right on the final attempt of the night, Duplantis completed the 6.25-meter jump to the delight of the jampacked crowd.
Despite bowing out just before the podium finish formalities, Obiena finished remarkably better than his 11th-place stint in 2021 Tokyo.
It also came amid a back injury that he suffered during the buildup that nearly sent him to early elimination.
Earlier in the day in Paris' metropolitan area, Lauren Hoffman crashed out of the women's 400-meter hurdles event.
Hoffman clocked 58.28 seconds, way behind a pack of six runners who were just at most 0.6 seconds apart from each other in Heat 3 of the repechage.
Shana Grebo of France gave the hometown crowd something to cheer about as she won the heat with a time of 54.91 seconds, while Anna Ryzhykova finished second in 54.95 to seal the last two berths in the semifinals.
Philippine athletics' hope to land a Paris Olympics medal now lies on John Cabang Tolentino, who will compete in the repechage of the 110-meter hurdles later Tuesday. (PNA)
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