PHNOM PENH. – Two-time world champion Carlos Yulo handily retained his individual all-around title while anchoring the national men’s gymnastics squad to another runner-up finish Monday in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games here.
Banking on strong scores in the floor exercise (14.350), vault (15.00), parallel bars (14.00) and rings (14.150) to offset his mediocre output in the pommel horse (12.650) and high bar (12.90), Yulo, 23, ended the day with the best individual tally of 84.00 points at the Olympic Stadium.
The pint-sized Pinoy phenom finished way ahead of Vietnamese Thang Tung Le and Phung Tanh Dinh, who settled for the silver and bronze medal with scores of 80.45 and 78.150 points, respectively.
Earlier in the day, Fernando Casares kept his men’s triathlon title while Kim Mangrobang failed in her bid for a fourth straight gold medal in women’s triathlon.
Casares clocked 58 minutes and 33.5 seconds to clinch the gold, beating Indonesian Rashif Yaqin (58:47) in the 750m swim-20km bike-5km run event at the Kep Beach Resort.
Andrew Kim Remolino finished third in 59:53 for the bronze, the Cebuano’s second medal after a silver medal finish in men’s aquathlon last Saturday.
Kun bokator delivered its second gold for the country courtesy of Robin Catalan, who reigned supreme in the men’s combat 50kg class. Angel Gwen Derla won the country’s first kun bokator gold last Thursday.
A fourth gold was delivered by swimming in night action at the Aquatics Center, with Xiandi Chua topping the 200m backstroke event in 2:13.20, relegating defending champion Chloe Isleta, who clocked 2:16.19, to the silver.
A heavy downpour after dusk helped ease the sweltering heat here but wreaked havoc at the Morodok Techo Stadium where the athletics events got going.
The rains flooded areas outside the stadium and forced officials to halt action on the field, where world No. 3 pole vaulter EJ Obiena was bidding to annex another gold medal.
After the rains subsided, Obiena proceeded to set a new SEA Games mark of 5.65m and handily won the gold, the country’s fifth for the day.
The five-gold haul improved the country’s total to 19, counting the gold medal won by the esports league of legends mixed team of Chammy Nazarrea, Justine Tan, Aaron Bingay, Golden Hart Dajao, Reniel Angara, and Gerald de Vera Gelacio late last Sunday.
As of 8:30 p.m., Filipino athletes, backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee, also had 23 silver medals and 25 bronze medals, good for third overall.
First-time host Cambodia continued to show the way, followed by Thailand and Vietnam.
Mangrobang, who retained her duathlon title last Sunday, clocked 1:07:24 to finish second behind Cambodian naturalized entry Margot Garabedian, who clocked one hour, five minutes and 34.2 seconds.
Garabedian is a former French triathlete currently ranked 190th in the world.
Carrying the team on his shoulders, Yulo lifted the Pinoy bets to the silver with a combined tally of 302.50 points, with Juan Miguel Besana (73.70), Jan Gwyn Timbang (71.90), John Ivan Cruz (62.050) and Justine Ace de Leon (60.250) contributing to the squad’s output.
Yulo joined Mangrobang, who ruled the women’s duathlon and settled for second in the women’s triathlon Monday, as the country’s first athletes with more than the two medals.
Yulo was overjoyed by his gold and silver-medal production because he just had two weeks to prepare for his routine here.
“I managed to do it and I’m so grateful,” he said.
Yulo can add more to his collection, according to gymnastics secretary general Rowena Bautista, the national team manager, who said the national coaching staff will decide in which two apparatus events the athlete would see action in.
The apparatus finals in floor exercise, pommel horse and rings begin at 2 p.m. (3 p.m. in Manila) Tuesday.
A day after the Pinoy 3×3 players were shut out of the gold, Gilas Pilipinas starts its bid towards redemption Tuesday, taking on Malaysia at 1 p.m. here in what could be the start of an arduous task to make up for a sorry silver medal finish in the Vietnam Games last year.
In women’s football, the World Cup-bound Filipinas face a must-win situation against defending champion Vietnam to punch a ticket to the semifinals and gain a chance to surpass their bronze medal finish in Vietnam last year.
Over at the Garden City’s tough layout, Paolo Wong carded a 70 and finished just a stroke behind Khanh Hung Le of Vietnam and Malcolm Hung of Malaysia after the first round of the men’s golf tournament.
But Rianne Malixi struggled with a 74 and found herself tied for joint ninth with teammates Lois Kaye Go, seven strokes behind Malaysian Ng Jing Xuen, in women’s golf.
