Ernest John Obiena slightly missed out on earning himself an Olympic medal after crashing out late in the Paris 2024 pole vault finals on early Tuesday morning, Aug. 6, in Paris, France.

The Thomasian alumnus brought a competitive fight lasting to the top 4 before failing to clear the 5.95 meter jump.

“[Fourth] place is painful to say the least; and in sports with three podium places, perhaps 4th is the harshest place to be,” he said in an Instagram post.

This is an improvement from his 11th point outing during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Obiena opened up the finals by clearing the starting 5.50-meter jump, contrary to what he did in qualifying, where he skipped it.

He followed it up with another smooth 5.70-meter jump, where he struggled during qualifying.

The 5.80-meter jump, which took him out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, posedanother problem after failing to clear the first out of three attempts.

Obiena decided to skip the second attempt and tried his luck in the 5.85-meter jump which he masterfully completed in one go.

The former UST Trackster also cleared the 5.90-meter jump without any hiccup where at this point, there are only three other vaulters remaining, including World No. 1 and defending Olympic champion Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, World No. 3 Sam Kendricks of the USA, and World No. 8 Emmanouil Karalis of Greece.

Obiena failed to clear the 5.95-meter jump in three attempts, ultimately ending his Olympic run in fourth, handing the podium places to the remaining three athletes.

Karalis brought home the bronze, while Kendricks took silver, and Duplantis remained unstoppable by claiming gold and setting a new world record by clearing the 6.25-meter jump.

Regardless of his performance, the WorldNo. 2 pole vaulter still reminisced over another Olympic experience despite of physical struggles.

“On a positive note I am proud of what I was actually able to stitch together for this Olympics, with all the struggles that came with this year; but still it hurts to be this close to an Olympic Medal,” he said.

READ: Obiena vaults into second Olympic finals for shot of gold

Meanwhile, Obiena gave his salutations to two-time Olympic champion, Carlos Yulo and apologized that he could not join him on the podium.

“Carlos Yulo has already made this an Olympics to remember, and I salute him. I am sorry I didn’t join him on the podium, but I will be back,” he assured his fans.