THE STARS may not have aligned for Ernest John (EJ) Obiena, who finished fourth in the 2024 Paris Olympics men’s pole vault final at the Stade de France, narrowly missing out on a podium spot.
Coming into the Olympics, millions of Filipinos were counting on Obiena to bring home the gold, or at least a medal for the country. The lanky pole vaulter was unable to do so, but he performed admirably.
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It was disheartening to see the world’s second-ranked pole vaulter fail to clear the 5.95-meter bar in all of his attempts, as well as fail to bring home his country’s first athletics Olympic medal in 88 years.
Nonetheless, there is a silver lining to Obiena’s performance that Filipinos should pay attention to, since improvements are evident after finishing fourth this time around. In the 2020 Tokyo Games, he finished 11th.
What happened?
There are many positives that Obiena may take away from his performance, but it is true that the results were painful, as he was supposed to bring the next gold medal after Carlos Yulo’s haul.
The highly accomplished pole vaulter skipped his second attempt at 5.80m and confidently increased the height to 5.85m, which he cleared. However, despite three attempts, he failed to clear the 5.95m.
Emmanouil Karalis of Greece won the bronze medal on a countback. If Obiena had cleared the 5.95m, he would have put additional pressure on his opponent, who failed to pass the 6.00m.
Meanwhile, Armand Duplantis won gold by breaking Thiago Braz’s Olympic record with 6.03m. He then set the record at 6.10m before breaking his own record at 6.25m.
Consistency is the key
After falling short of a podium finish and failing to fulfill his pledge of redemption, Obiena became distraught after the match and expressed regret for the unfortunate outcome.
“There’s a lot of things that happened this year, I’m thankful that I got to the finals, definitely. But at the same time, I’m disappointed, because it wasn’t far,” says Obiena.
When asked what he think is lacking with him and his performance, he insisted that it’s consistency, “I think it’s consistency, overall. I missed one attempt, and that really defined the medal to the non-medalist.”
“Sports is beautiful, but also brutal, and I understand that. Going in, like I said, it’s consistency I’m lacking. I felt like I need a little bit more time. But you know, it’s Olympics. It’s not gonna wait for anybody.”
Heartbreak for Obiena
Despite knowing he did his best, despite having bodily concerns leading up to the Olympics and finishing fourth, “it doesn’t make it less painful” for the pole vaulter.
“He [coach] said that it is not the end of the world, but it did feel like it’s the end of the world. I needed to take time, to kind of reflect the whole thing, and everything I’ve been through,” shares the emotional Obiena.
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“It’s not something I expected, it’s not something I was aiming for. I’m happy for everybody that got the medal, they deserve it. But it doesn’t give me a little bit of less shade of pain.”
Obiena became emotional as he began to apologize to the Filipinos he felt he had let down after unsuccessfully concluding his time for the Philippines at the Paris Olympics.
“I apologize. I promise I’m gonna go back after Tokyo [Olympics] and do better. I did, but I came up short. So I’m really sorry, and I apologize for it,” says Obiena, who was crying in pain of the loss.
Nonetheless, Obiena did his best to represent his country in every tournament he participated in. An Olympic ambition may not have been achieved but it lives on within him to inspire him even more if he intends to chase it further.
