It was redemption twice over for gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo at the Paris Games.
A day after becoming the first Filipino male athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, Yulo followed up with a second gold medal at the Summer Games, winning the vault competition to more than make up for missing the podium in Tokyo three years ago.
It was a joyous Sunday indeed for the Philippines, with two Filipina boxers—Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas—starting the day with respective wins in their quarterfinals bouts to secure their place in the semifinals and guarantee themselves at least Olympic bronze medals.
Villegas steps in the ring on 7 August for a date with destiny while Petecio fights for a berth in the finals on 8 August and possibly another chance at an Olympic gold.
The trifecta of triumphs on Sunday made up for the loss of Tokyo silver medalist Carlo Paalam in his quarterfinals match in men’s boxing.
Of the triple victory, what could be sweeter than Yulo’s who just a day earlier won the first Olympic gold for Philippine gymnastics and the second gold medal in the Quadrennial Games on the 100th anniversary of the Philippines’ participation in the world’s biggest sporting event.
Yulo, who had to change coaches after the Tokyo games, varied his vault routine from the qualification round, increasing the difficulty value of his first attempt and paying handsomely. His first vault, a Ri Se Gwang, had a difficulty value of 6.00, which gave him the highest score for the day at 15.433. He then followed up with a Kasamatsu double twist, with a 5.6 DV, for a score of 14.800. His winning score was an average 15.116.
The vault is definitely one of Yulo’s strongest events having won the 2021 World Championships.
Armenia’s Artur Davtyan, who was the last gymnast on vault, had a good chance to overtake Yulo with his clean attempts, but his two vaults both had 5.6 DV. He had an average score of 14.966 to settle for silver. Great Britain’s Harry Hepworth was second at 14.949 until Davtyan came up with her performance.
Ernest John Obiena will compete in the finals of the men’s pole vault competition. Obiena is among a handful of pole vaulters in the Paris Games to have cleared 6 meters.
