WHILE the Thai hosts of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games have limited the events and entries in the sport, gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion is still confident that Pinoy gymnasts can deliver the country’s much-needed golds in the regional meet in December.
On top of Paris Olympic double gold medalist Carlos EdrielYulo, Carrion said, fellow Paris Olympians Aleah Finnegan and Emma Malabuyo are also committed to see action in the biennial sportsfest.
“Although Carlos is limited to only one event, we also have Aleah and Emma who have agreed to represent the country in the Thailand SEA Games,” Carrion, the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president, disclosed.
Finnegan has already shown her worth in the biennial meet, romping off with one gold and two silver medals during her SEA Games debut in 2021 in Hanoi, Vietnam and won bronze medals in the women’s balance beam and vault in the 2023 Asian meet in Singapore.
Malabuyo also garnered a silver in the women’s floor exercise in Singapore, surpassing her feat last year in Tashkent, Uzbekistan when she ruled the women’s floor exercise on top of a bronze in individual all-around.
Carrion said that ElaizaYulo, the younger sister of Carlos, will be 16 by December and will make her SEA Games debut in Thailand together with US-based but homegrown talent Haylee Garcia.
Carrion said that Yulo will likely see action in the men’s parallel bars and leave it to his national teammates to see action in the other five apparatuses, among them John Ivan Cruz and Juancho Miguel Besana, who ruled the floor and vault events, respectively, in the Cambodia SEA Games.
Jhon Romeo Santillan, who like Besana saw action in the last University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany in July, will also see action in the meet, and is a strong prospect in the pommel horse with his long limbs.
Carrion rued the fact that only six individual events for the men’s and four for the women’s are scheduled in the 33rd SEA Games, with the team and individual all-around in both divisions left out in artistic gymnastics.
“Nonetheless, our gymnasts are going to be well prepared, and, Lord willing, we will dominate artistic gymnastics despite the changes,” according to Carrion.
She said that likely to compete for the country in women’s rhythmic gymnastics are foreign-based veteran internationalists Breanna Abadan and Althea Ramillo.
