Yulo completes golden set

NAGOYA – It’s only fitting – Olympic and world champion Carlos Yulo now owns the Asian Games throne.

Eight years after a forgettable seventh-place finish in Jakarta, the 26-year-old returned to the Asiad a different gymnast – seasoned, surgical, a star – and wowed the Nagoya City General Gymnasium to deliver Team Philippines’ first gold in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games last night.

It is also the first ever for a Filipino gymnast in the history of the quadrennial continental meet.

Yulo ruled the floor exercise with a safe-but-clean 14.666, built on a 5.7 difficulty and huge execution. In Paris, where he won gold, he posted 6.6 + 8.4 for 15.000.

“I’m happy we got the result we wanted and we got the Asiad gold,” said Yulo, who remains in the hunt in vault and parallel bars. And he’s bent on chasing more.

“It’s like Tokyo then Paris,” Yulo said, likening his Asiad arc to his Olympic run – barely warming up in Japan in 2021 before soaring as a double-gold champion in the French capital in 2024.

But it wasn’t easy here.

Yulo admitted his first pass wasn’t good, and he had to spend the rest of the routine making up for it. When he stuck the final landing, the scoreboard told him it was enough.

The last three heavyweights could not catch him.

Silver went to Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi with 14.600, bronze to Japan’s Shoma Tsukiyama with 14.566. Just outside the podium was South Korea’s Ryu Sunghyun with 14.366, while home hero Daiki Hashimoto was held to 13.5 and Korea’s Kim Jaeho to 13.6. China’s Sun Wei faltered with 10.5.

Chloe: God Is Good

Keen spectator in the gallery was Carlos’ partner Chloe.

“This is the most emotional win since Paris,” she said. “We’ve gone through a lot. We prayed together, and this is a testament to God’s goodness.”

“Nag-ingat ng kaunti, baka ma-injure pa,” said Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who led the Filipino crowd that witnessed Yulo’s breakthrough.

“He broke the ice, at magtutuloy-tuloy na yan,” Tolentino added, firm in his belief that the Philippines will surpass its four-gold hauls in both 2018 and 2023.

There was family pride, too. Karl Eldrew Yulo, 18, a world juniors bronze medalist, made the final in his first Asiad and wound up seventh with 12.333.

The future looks bright.

“Aangat pa yan,” said Tolentino.

With Yulo’s golden feat, the Philippines cracked the Top 20 of the medal tally with a 1-1-4 gold-silver-bronze haul. China continued to dominate the Games with 75 golds as of 7 p.m. last night. Japan was a far second with 20.

Gilas 3x3 into medal round

It was the finest day so far for Team Philippines in the Games – golden and with the Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 teams rolling to the medal round.

The Gilas men pulled off a pulsating 21-19 triumph over Chinese Taipei while the women whipped Singapore, 22-12.

Nic Cabañero continued to endure an injured right shooting hand, top-scoring with eight points. Manuel Pablo chipped in six markers and the same number of rebounds, David Dungo added five and three, while Koji Buenaflor grabbed 10 boards on top of two markers. Ka Kennan and Amyah Espanol led the women’s charge with seven points each.

Sad tales

But there were sad tales to tell, including Norlan Petecio’s unanimous decision loss to home bet Sewonrets Okazawa, leaving the Philippine boxing team with four remaining bets in Carlo Paalam, Junmilardo Ogayre, Nesthy Petecio and Risa Pasuit.

The Gilas Women 5x5 couldn’t match the feat of their 3x3 counterparts, ending their campaign with a 71-83 loss to Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

Sanchez rips national mark

Over in Tokyo, swimmer Kayla Sanchez narrowly missed a podium finish once again, winding up fourth in the 50m freestyle.

Consolation was Sanchez clocking a solid 24.75 seconds that shattered her own national record for the women’s 50m freestyle.

Sanchez previously set the national standard at 25.15 seconds while winning a silver medal at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand last year.

China’s Wu Qingfeng captured the gold and established a new Games Record with a blistering finish of 23.98 seconds. Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey claimed the silver medal at 24.32 seconds, while China’s Cheng Yujie secured the bronze at 24.46 seconds.

Team Philippines sent final qualifiers in the skateboarding park finals at the Aichi Sky Expo Hall B – 12-year-old Mazel Paris in women and Jericho Francisco in men. Failing to make the grade was another young bet, Elizabeth Amador.

In squash mixed doubles, the Philippines scored a split with the Jemyca Aribado-David Pelino pair advancing to the quarterfinals with an 11-7, 11-7 win over South Korea’s Hwayeong Eum and Minwoo Lee, and the Yvonne Dalida-Jonathan Reyes tandem falling by the wayside on a 1-11, 6-11 rout by Heo Mingyeong and Oh Seojin, another Korean pair.

In rowing at the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course, Paris Olympian Joanie Delgaco made a big improvement from an 8:25.47 clocking in the prelims to 8:01.63 in the women’s singles sculls final, to no avail. She was overwhelmed by the five other finalists who all breached the eight-minute mark.

Elsewhere, Tokyo Olympian Cris Nievarez didn’t start in the men’s singles sculls Final B, Van Adrian Maxilom and Rynjie Peñaredondo finished eighth overall in men’s pair, while mountain bikers Shayne Paula Yaoyao and Adel Pina Sendrijas were overlapped and eliminated in women’s cross country at Obata Ryokuchi Park.