Filipino Olympian Carlos Yulo showed his readiness for the big leagues as he won his third gold to cap his dominance in the 2023 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships on Sunday in Singapore.
The 23-year-old Yulo ruled the men’s vault finals with 14.299 points for his third gold in the meet. It was the highest he got on his second routine with 5.6 points on difficulty and 9.033 on execution.
Uzbekistan’s Abdulaziz Mirvaliev, who had a 0.1 deduction in his second routine, landed second with 14.083, while South Korea’s Jaeho Kim settled for third with 13.766.
Yulo, who is from Leveriza, Manila, also topped the parallel bar finals for his second gold with a score of 15.266.
Japan’s junior standout Shinnosuke Oka scored 15.133 and China’s Dehang Yin collected 15.100 to finish second and third, respectively.
In the high bar finals, Yulo scored 14.533 to take the bronze medal behind China’s Hao Tian (14.533) and Japan’s Oka (14.366), who took the gold and silver medals, respectively.
Yulo’s efforts saw him earning a total of five medals — three golds including the first one he secured in the floor exercises on Saturday and the silver in the all-around last Thursday.
His younger brother, 13-year-old Karl Eldrew, contributed a medal in the junior action after bagging a silver medal with 13.775 points.
Eldrew tied Wang Cheng Cheng of China on points. But a 0.3 deduction in Day 1 allowed Wang to get the gold. Altynkhan Temirbek of Kazakhstan claimed the bronze.
In women’s action, 20-year-old Emma Malabuyo, who recently joined Team Philippines, came up with a successful debut by bagging a silver in the floor exercises.
Malabuyo, a promising young gymnast, who transferred from Team USA, collected 13.166 to claim second spot behind gold medalist China’s Zhang Qingying.
Shin Sholyi of Korea was third (13.833), while Finnegan took fourth (12.966).
It was Malabuyo’s best showing after last seeing action in the 2021 U.S. Championships, where she finished fourth in the all-around.
Meanwhile, Aleah Finnegan snared her second bronze medal when she took third place in the beam exercises, behind China’s Zhang Qingying, who took her second gold with 14.22 points, and Zhang Zinyi (13.133), who claimed second position.
Finnegan’s qualification came at the expense of eight-time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina, who missed out on an all-around berth to World Championships.
Chusovitina, who had a big stumble in the vault, won’t be competing in four events at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, set for September in Antwerp, Belgium.
Chusovitina’s all-around total was 46.699, some eight 10ths of a point behind the final qualifer, Emma Yap of Singapore, who scored 47.499.
As a result, Finnegan and teammate were picked to join Rifda Irfanaluthfi of India, Milka Gehani Elpitiya Badalge Dona of Sri Lanka, Dildora Aripova of Uzbekistan, Aida Bauyrzhanova of Kazakhstan, Nadine Joy Nathan of Singapore Kylee Ann Kvamme of the Philippines and Yap to the world finals.
In all, Team Philippines came home with a total of three golds, three silvers and three bronzes to finish third overall.
Japan (11-7-4) was the overall leader, with China (10-7-5) taking second.