Was this pole vaulter knocked over by his manhood or the camera angle

Japan’s Hiroki Ogita came very close to clearing the bar in the men’s pole vault qualifying round at the 2016 Olympic Games, but at the last second the vault fail, throwing Ogita out of the competition. (Photo: AFP)

A Japanese pole vaulter is being mocked across the Web after his penis seemingly hit the bar while he was clearing the jump.

In a campaign that has gone viral, web users claim Hiroki Ogita’s penis “prevented him from progressing at the Rio Olympics”.

A video clip of the athlete hitting the bar with what seemed to some his penis is currently trending online.

Ogita has expressed shock at the way the Web has been talking about his privates.

“I never expected the foreign media to take me down like this,” the 28-year-old athlete tweeted. “It’s one thing if it was true, but I have to say I’m pretty devastated that they’d go so far to make something up to mock and ridicule me so much.”

The BBC quoted a pole vaulting expert who said the controversy was all because of an unfortunate camera angle. “He had already pressed on the crossbar so much,” pole vaulting coach David Yeo was quoted as saying by the BBC.

“The crossbar was bound to dislodge. I think it was just the crumpling of the fabric which happened at the wrong position,” he added.

Twitter users in Japan have, however, expressed support. Twitter user @wotarou0019kota tweeted (in Japanese): “Don’t stress over it and be positive! I do athletics as well, and sometimes stuff happens. It’s awesome enough that you’re able to be up there on the world stage, so hold your head up high and keep on jumping!”

Ogita too is trying to stay positive amidst the rather personal crisis. “To be honest, it’s pretty rough, but I guess I’m in the spotlight so this might be some kind of opportunity. I’ll do my best and get the results so that I get the last laugh. It doesn’t matter if you do it for a joke or whatever, I ask you to go and watch an actual game at a stadium for once. I hope you appreciate, even a bit, what a great sport pole vaulting is,” he said, in all seriousness.

But he did finally find some humour in the incident. “Watching again, this is pretty funny, if I say so myself. LOL,” he eventually tweeted.