Carlos Yulo won his second straight title in the parallel bars, while his teammates Ivan Cruz and Juancho Besana secured the golds on floor exercise and vault, respectively, to close out a productive 32nd Southeast Asian Games artistic gymnastics competition on Tuesday at the Olympic Complex in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The three titles won by our men’s artistic gymnastics team are the country’s 20th, 21st, and 22nd gold medals in the Games, bringing their total to four golds and two silvers.
Yulo, who had won two straight medals in the Worlds in parallel bars, dominated the apparatus with a score of 14.850, earning him his ninth Games gold. He had earlier won the silver in still rings with a score of 14.000, just 0.200 behind eventual champion Nguyen Van Khanh Phong of Vietnam.
Due to restrictions on participating in two apparatus finals for gymnasts other than the Cambodians, the Filipinos had to strategize and eventually found athletes who were ready to step up.
Cruz, who was the second-best qualifier behind Yulo on the floor, took advantage of the opportunity and kept the floor title in the Philippines with a score of 13.850.
Besana, on the other hand, converted his Vietnam Games bronze on vault to a gold medal this time with an average score of 14.425.
