HANOI. – Carlos Yulo completed a golden double while dancesport scored four rousing victories Monday as the Philippines came up with its best performance yet in the 31st Southeast Asian Games here, going on a 10-gold medal rush to stay on the coattails of Thailand in their heated battle for second overall.
Yulo, 22, expectedly triumphed in the apparatus where he is the reigning world champion, dominating the vault finals and adding a surprise gold in the horizontal bars as he ended his stint here with a shot at becoming the best male athlete.
After wowing the crowd at the Quan Ngua Sports Palace with a runaway victory in the vault where he scored 14.700 points, Yulo returned hours later and tied for first in the horizontal bars with Ding Phuong Thanh of Vietnam, both scoring 13.867 points.
The horizonal gold was the fifth gold medal by Yulo, counting his earlier victories in the men’s all-around, floor exercise, and rings, on top of silver medal finishes in the men’s team event and parallel bars.
He matched the five-gold haul recorded by a forgotten sports hero, Rolando Albuera, who achieved the feat in the Jakarta 1979 SEA Games where the Philippines collected a total of 24 gold medals and finished fourth overall.
Overall, artistic gymnastics contributed 7 gold medals, 4 silvers and one bronze to the Philippine drive here, the best finish by Pinoy gymnasts in memory.
The other two gold medals were contributed by Fil-Am Aleah Finnegan in the women’s team and vault while adding a silver medal in the balance beam, losing to Malaysia’s Rachel Yeoh Li Wen (12.567-12.467).
Aside from Yulo’s last day golden double, also contributing to the country’s cause was the dancesport pair of Jean Mischa Aranar and Ana Nualla, who completed a golden treble in tango, Viennese waltz, and all final dance standard at the Long Bien Gymnasium.
Mark Jayson Gayon and Mary Joy Renigen contributed the fourth gold for the day, ruling the slow foxtrot, raising dancesport’s contribution to five, counting another gold last Sunday.
Bowler Merwin Tan ruled the men’s singles and ended an 11-year golden drought by the keglers; 110-meter hurdler Clinton Kingston Bautista kept his crown as the athletics team raised its haul to three golds; while Jocel Lyn Ninoble triumphed in women’s poomsae of taekwondo.
Swimmer Chloe Isleta also joined the gold medal parade, ruling the women’s 200-m backstroke.
Vietnam all but wrapped up the overall title won by the Philippines in 2019 but Pinoy athletes, whose stint here is backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, stayed in contention for second overall with a total harvest of 30-34-43 to Thailand’s 34-35-50. The host team zoomed away from the field with an 83-50-55 harvest.
“If it’s up to me I wanted to win all the medals in all the events,” said Yulo, who ended up sharing the horizontal gold with Ding as decided by the organizing committee.
“I thought I lost the gold there,” said Yulo, who was informed of the interesting decision by Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.
“There were two golds (in that event). The difficulty of Caloy’s performance was much higher, and the landing (of the Vietnamese) was not perfect. We should have scored higher,” said Carrion.
Yulo also won the silver in parallel bars with a score of 14.900, losing the gold to Ding who scored 15.133.
Tan, a 22-year-old left-hander, came from behind to rule the men’s singles event at the Royal City Hanoi Bowling Lanes, rolling a six-bagger in the sixth and last frame to beat Yannaphon Larpapharat of Thailand and Ryan Leonard Lalisang of Indonesia.
Tan finished with a total score of 1292, his bid immensely helped by a 294 in the sixth frame after scoring 234 in the fifth frame that bumped him up to No. 3 overall. Larpapharat and Lalisang were relegated to silver and bronze, respectively, with scores of 1286 and 1221.
Elsewhere in the games, Gilas Pilipinas escaped with a thrilling 76-73 win over perennial rival Thailand at the start of regular men’s basketball at the Thanh Tri Gymnasium.
The Thais made a game of it throughout, trailing by just six at the half 36-42. Nakorn Jaisanuk missed what could have been a game-tying three-pointer in the Thais’ last possession.
The Gilas women had an easier time, handily beating Indonesia 93-77.
Billiards great Efren “Bata” Reyes, still a big hit with Vietnamese fans, advanced to the semifinals of the men’s one-cushion carom singles, beating Suriya Suwannasingh of Thailand 65-58.
Bautista, the only Filipino to ever win the 110-meter hurdles in the SEA Games, is now a proud owner of a second straight gold in the event, following a record-smashing 13.78-second run that broke his own record of 13.97 set during the 2019 Philippine SEA Games.
“Hindi ko expected ito, kasi sila (Thai and Singaporean) ang may leading time bago itong SEA Games,” said Bautista, referring to his rivals for the gold.
Bautista’s feat was the third gold for the athletics contingent in the biennial meet, to go with Ernest John Obiena’s record-smashing performance in pole vault and William Morrison’s shotput triumph.
Pole vaulter Natalie Uy, complaining of numbness in both legs, failed to defend her crown though, fouling on three tries, allowing Malaysian Nor Sarah Adi Binti to unseat the Fil-American from her throne.
“Hindi niya raw maramdaman ang legs niya, maaring pagod sa mahabang byahe,” said pole vault coach Emerson Obiena of Uy, who is based in Kettering, Ohio.
