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

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