Yulo show continues

MANILA, Philippines — Typhoon “Caloy” hit the 30th Southeast Asian Games yesterday as Carlos Edriel Yulo flashed his world-class form to conquer his pet event and grab two more silvers at the end of the stormy night.

In front of a big crowd who braved the heavy rains from Typhoon Tisoy to catch him in action at Rizal Memorial Coliseum, the Manileño dazzled on the mat with a showcase of strength, balance and flexibility to reign in the floor exercise and join the elite ranks of double champions in the three-day old SEAG.

Picking up from where he left off last Sunday when he burst through with the individual all around mint, Yulo ripped through the opposition and ran away with a winning 14.700.

Yulo is the reigning world champion in floor exercise so he wouldn’t let anyone touch him in this event here. Surintornta Tikumporn of Thailand (13.833) and Mat Zul Bahrin of Malaysia (13.433) were left in Caloy’s wake.

Yulo’s quest for three golds for the day though was denied by Malaysian Tan Fu Jie in pommel horse and Vietnamese Dang Nam in still rings.

Tan got 13.967 from the judges en route to fending off Yulo (13.233) and repeating as the SEAG’s pommel horse king.

Dang did the same in Yulo’s attempt at the still rings gold, submitting  13.867 to leave the hometown hero (13.733) settling for the silver.

“I’m not actually like aiming for medals, I’m aiming for good routines and good executions, that’s all,” he said.

Yulo felt he could have done better.

“Not satisfied, I’ve done better in training than execution (here),” he added.

Gymnastics officials had predicted a clean sweep of the seven events for Yulo but with his runner-up finishes on Day Two, the most he could get here was five. He’ll try to strike gold again in his remaining events – vault, horizontal bar and parallel bars today.

“I’m not really expecting,” he said.

Weightlifting star Hidilyn Diaz, who recently won her first SEAG gold, dropped by to watch and cheer for Yulo

 “I’m thankful to everyone who came to support me despite the rains,” said the double-gold winner.