BARELY standing at five feet, gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo would go unnoticed in a crowd.
But last Sunday night, Yulo stood out over the rest of the Philippine contingent in the 31st Vietnam SEA Games with a pair of outstanding performances in the men’s artistic gymnastics at the Quang Ngua Sports Palace in Hanoi.
The diminutive Pinoy dynamo was at his best anew, stamping his class, as expected, in the men’s floor exercise before completing his impressive night with his third gold medal, ruling the rings with scores that surpassed his past tallies in the 2019 SEA Games in Manila.
Yulo, the 2019 world floor exercise champion in Stuttgart, Germany, scored 15.200 in his pet event, surpassing his 14.700 in his SEA Games debut at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum three years ago.
As an encore, the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines protégé garnered 14.000 points in the rings, besting his own score of 13.3773 when he took the silver in the event in 2019.
Together with the men’s all-around mint and team all-around silver he bagged last Friday, Yulo has become the country’s SEA Games top performer anew with still a week left in the regional sports showcase being hosted by Vietnam for the second time.
“Yes, he (Yulo) is a real champion in heart, mind and spirit. Caloy (Yulo’s nickname) is really a great athlete, and we are all so proud of him,” said gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion, who watched her prized ward perform together with Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and national team chief of mission Ramon Fernandez.
The 6-foot-4 Fernandez immediately went over to Yulo after the awarding rites and raised the pint-sized champion in the air for his superb showing for the second straight day.
Hogging the spotlight with Yulo is Fil-Am Alea Finnegan, who bagged her first individual mint for the country by topping the women’s vault event with 13.133 points.
“I just feel so blessed. It is a great feeling even if it was not one of my best vaults. I just went out there and did what I needed to do. No regrets,” Finnegan, a Louisiana State University varsity star, said.
There could be more gold medals in store for the team since Yulo will also compete in the vault and parallel bars Monday. He won gold and silver, respectively, in the two events during the 40th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships last November in Kitakyushu, Japan.
