Pihlström finished fourth with a time of 3.33,58, a new personal best, in one of the heats and was only two hundredths behind Mills, who advanced to the semifinal.
Pihlström himself did not feel that anything had happened that broke the rules.
For Swedish reporters at Stade de France, he mentioned two incidents during the race, one with the Pole Filip Rak and one with Mills.
I ran a good race, but it got a bit messy. I lost a bit of rhythm and so on. I don't think it was unfair, they just realized a bit too late that they were in the wrong place and were about to get boxed in.
Then they tried to push a bit, but that's part of the sport.
The national team captain Kajsa Bergqvist supported the protest but has no objections to it being rejected.
We wanted to review the incident to get a picture of what happened. We filed a protest because what the Brit did didn't look entirely "fair". So we wanted to take a look, she says in Max.
We wanted to see it from several angles. Samuel wasn't too disturbed by what the Brit did, but it's about whether he advanced in an unfair way. But it looked less dramatic from the angles we saw, and we have to accept that it was rejected.
Despite finishing fourth, Pihlström was pleased with his performance.
I had my worst personal best in the qualifying round yesterday and it was the same today. There was no one who had counted on me being up there and fighting. I really feel that I have something to build on here.
