SEA Games: Carlos Yulo gets fifth gold to lead PH gymnastics to best finish in recent years

Carlos Yulo during the men's individual all-around at the 31st SEA Games. SEA GAMES POOL PHOTO

FILE–Carlos Yulo during the men’s individual all-around at the 31st SEA Games. SEA GAMES POOL PHOTO

HANOI — Carlos Yulo triumphed in high bar and men’s vault on Monday to complete his dominance in artistic gymnastics with a total haul of five golds and two silvers here in the 31st Southeast Asian Games.

Yulo medalled in all three events he competed in the last day of the discipline at Quan Ngua Sports Palace, powering the country to its best finish in recent years with a 7-5-1 tally.

“If it’s up to me I wanted to win all the medals in all the event,” said the 22-year-old Yulo in Filipino. He bagged the top honor in men’s vault with 14.800 points.

But drama took place when Yulo next took the gold in the high bar with 13.867 points, tying Vietnam’s Ding Phuong Thanh. They ended up getting a gold medal each, according to the organizing committee.

“I thought I lost the gold there,” said Yulo, who was informed of the interested decision by Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.

“There are two golds (in that event). The difficulty of Caloy’s performance was much higher and the landing (of the Vietnamese). We should have scored higher,” said Carrion.

Yulo (14.900) took silver in parallel bars, losing to Thanh (15.133).

Earlier Aleah Finnegan picked up the silver in balance beam, losing to Malaysia’s Rachel Yeoh Li Wen (12.567-12.467).

Finnegan, the former United States national gymnast, also contributed to the bucket two golds including women’s team and women’s vault in the previous days.

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