“I don’t think it hindered me, at least on the day of Paris Olympics. If I’m analyzing everything without any emotion to this period and the reality of things, I think it did affect me but not on the competition.
“(But) it affected my consistency. It affected my overall program going to Paris,” said Obiena.
“It’s been a very tough season for me overall. I felt like I was getting maybe two, three sessions before Olympics that I started to be able to stitch together myself and got a good barrier of what I can do. And I think it definitely showed in the qualis (qualifiers) and maybe even in the final, the lack of consistency and repetitions because of all these problems.”
Addressing Obiena's spine injury
Now that the Olympics is done, Obiena said he will be looking at addressing his back injury. He will also be limiting his competitions for the remainder of the year but hopes to maintain his world ranking of No. 2.
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“Now, there is no reason to be in pain meds and try to compete. It’s time to fix the problem. If the doctor thinks [we can] finish the season, that’s what we are going to do. We are not going to be doing any risk for my health, and longterm health plans. And then, we are going to take it from there,” said Obiena.
“I’m not really joining in small tournaments. I think I’ve chosen a lot of high-level competitions,” he added.
Obiena assured the Filipino nation that he did his best in the Olympics under the challenging circumstances.
“But I can promise you guys that I did everything that I can with all the circumstances I dealt with. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved,” Obiena said.
“But it didn’t really lessen the disappointment and pain of coming in fourth. In every other Olympics, 5.90 would have medalled. One miss at 5.80 that didn’t even matter, cost me a podium finish. It is sport. It can be beautiful and brutal at the same time,” said Obiena.