CARLOS Yulo won’t be the only Filipino gymnast the opposition have to look out for in the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games.
Thanks to the persuasive powers of gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion, Filipino-American Aleah Finnegan, a former US national team member, will don the national colors and looms as a strong gold contender in all five individual events of the SEA Games women’s artistic gymnastics meet in Hanoi.
Finnegan, who won a team gold medal for the US in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, received her Philippine passport only last March, according to Gymnastics Association of the Philippines secretary general Rowena Eusuya.
“Her transfer of citizenship even became a discussion with the International Gymnastics Federation board before it happened,” added Eusuya of the gymnast, whose mother, Linabelle, was born and raised in the Philippines before migrating to the United States.
“Both athlete and mother will be leaving this coming week for the Vietnam SEA Games and then head back to Manila so she can train for a while and be immersed with the other national athletes,” she said.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri and currently studying at Louisiana State University, Finnegan, 19, has an elder sister Sarah, who also competed for the US and was an alternate on the American squad that saw action in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Based on her personal best performances in 2021, the 5-foot-4 athlete would have captured most of the individual golds up for grabs in the 2019 SEA Games had she been a member of the national team.
Her personal bests are 14.250 points on the vault, 13.350, uneven bars; 13.550, balance beam; 13.500, floor exercise; and 54.150, all-around.
She finished 233rd overall in the US Championships in Fort Worth Texas with scores of 14.000, 13.350, 13.550, 12.600 and 53.500 in the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise and all-around, respectively.
Malaysian 2019 SEA Games triple gold medalist Farah Ann Abdul Hadi scored 48.050 in the women’s all-around, 12.366 in the uneven bars and 12.600 in the floor exercise when the competition was held at the historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Indonesia’s Rifda Irfanalufthfi topped the vault event with a score of 13.484 points while Malaysia’s Tracie Ang had a tally of 12.867 in the balance beam.
Carrion said Finnegan will also be eligible to see action for the country in the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships on June 15 to 18 in Doha, Qatar, the continental qualifying meet for the 41st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Liverpool, England in late October.
