Carlos Yulo during the floor exercise in the 30th Southeast Asian Games gymnastics event on December 3. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Carlos Yulo thumped his chest and pointed to the sky after completing a spellbinding routine in the men’s floor exercise final–and the hometown crowd at Rizal Memorial Coliseum drowned him in cheers.
With one final leap and twist, Yulo catapulted himself to a second gold medal after stamping his class yet again in his pet event.
The pint-sized powerhouse was second to perform, and after earning 14.700 from the judges, it was clear that the rest of the field was left to battle it out for the silver–at least for the floor exercise.
Yulo, the first Filipino and Southeast Asian male to become a world champion gymnast, dethroned compatriot Reyland Capellan, the event’s back-to-back gold medalist, who actually missed out on a medal after sliding to fifth place with a 13.433.
Capellan was off to a rousing start but a faulty landing in the end cost him his place in the podium.
Tikomporn Surintornta of Thailand came in second with a score of 13.833 while Zur Bahrin Mat Asri of Malaysia bagged the bronze with 13.767.
In his second and third events, however, Yulo was as human as everyone else.
“I’m not satisfied,” Yulo said after the two silver medal efforts. “I was performing better in training. But I am still happy because I wasn’t expecting anything.”
The 19-year-old settled for silver in the pommel horse and still rings events but will have cracks at three more gold medals at the close of competitions Wednesday when he takes part in the vault, horizontal bars and parallel bars events.
Yulo didn’t quite look pleased after dismounting from the padded apparatus in the men’s pommel horse event–considered to be his weakest event–as he tallied just 13.233 points.
Malaysia’s Fu Jie Tan claimed the pommel horse gold with a 13.967 while Vietnam’s Phuong Thanh Dinh (12.867) got the bronze.
Returning later in the day, Yulo pumped his fist in the air after sticking his landing off an acrobatic dismount from the still rings that triggered a roar from the raucous crowd.
Yulo knew his scintillating performance was enough to medal. But it wasn’t good enough to win the gold. He tallied 13.733, finishing behind Vietnam’s Nam Dang (13.867). INQ