GIVEN the present depth of the national men’s artistic gymnastics pool, Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion may opt to field Paris Olympic double gold medal Carlos Edriel Yulo in just a couple of events in the 33rd Thailand Southeast Asian Games in December.
“Thai organizers have dropped the team and individual all-around from the roster of events in artistic gymnastics so I was thinking that Carlos should be limited to a couple so our other gymnasts can get the chance to shine,” Carrion said.
There will be six events in the men’s and four events in women’s artistic gymnastics in the regional games set to be held from Dec. 9 to 20 in the Thai capital of Bangkok and the provinces of Chonburi and Songkhla.
To be contested in the men’s class are the individual events of floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar while set in the women’s class are the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.
Filipino bets placed second overall in the 2023 edition of the SEA Games in Cambodia with a haul of four gold, two silver and two bronzes when only the men’s events were on tap.
Yulo ruled the individual all-around and parallel bars while John Ivan Cruz and Juancho Miguel Besana had a mint each in the floor exercise and vault, respectively.
With the women’s artistic gymnastics events back in the Thailand Games, Carrion said she would likely invite US-based Paris Olympians Aleah Finnegan and Emma Malabuyo to carry the cudgels for the PH squad.
In her national team debut, Finnegan anchored the Pinay standard-bearers to two gold and two silver medals in the 31st Vietnam Southeast Asian Games in 2021.
The Louisiana State University varsity star also garnered a bronze each in the balance beam and vault in the 2023 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Singapore.
Malabuyo ruled the women’s floor exercise and bagged a bronze medal in individual all-around in the Asian meet in Tashkent, Uzbekistan a year ago.
