Just like Carlos Yulo did two years ago in Paris, he delivered when the pressure was off.
The 25-year-old ace from Adamson University captured his second gold medal of the 20th Asian Games after topping the men’s vault final with an average score of 14.599 on Friday at the Nagoya General Gymnasium.
After claiming his first-ever Asian Games title in the floor exercise the previous day, Yulo made sure to make amends for his fall in the vault qualifications.
(C) POC Media Group
He opened the final with a solid execution of a 5.6-difficulty vault, earning a score of 14.733.
Buoyed by the strong start, Yulo then nailed his second vault, receiving a higher execution score of 9.266 to finish with the final mark that propelled him to the top with just two gymnasts remaining.
One of those was Iran’s Mahdi Olfati, who initially threatened Yulo with the highest score of the day, a 15.100, courtesy of his own named vault.
(C) POC Media Group
Olfati, however, needed another strong vault to dislodge Yulo from the top spot. His succeeding attempt fell just short of the 14-point mark at 13.966, allowing the Filipino gymnast to secure the gold.
Miguel Besana ended his Asian Games campaign with a fifth-place finish after posting an average of 13.783, missing the podium to Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Ki, who took the bronze with a 14.166 average.
Yulo will return later for his final shot at another medal in the parallel bars, while his younger brother, Karl Eldrew, will close the Team Philippines campaign in gymnastics in the horizontal bar.
