Yulo vies in Cambodia for love of sport

MANILA, Philippines — World champion gymnast Caloy Yulo is a favorite to sweep all seven events in the Phnom Penh Southeast Asian Games slated May 5 to 17.

But no thanks to a bizarre rule host Cambodia has imposed, the pocket-sized dynamo could only take home a maximum of two gold medals.

“In gymnastics, they said that even if Caloy wins seven gold, he can only receive two,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion yesterday told The STAR.

This setup would prevent Yulo from duplicating, if not surpassing, his five-gold and two-silver harvest in last year’s Hanoi Games where he emerged the most bemedalled Filipino athlete.

And that is apart from an earlier decision by the organizers to remove women’s artistic gymnastics (WAG) where the country snared two mints in last year’s Hanoi Games as well as rhythmic gymnastics (RG) from the calendar.

Carrion stressed, though, Yulo will still participate for the love of the sport.

“It will look bad if we don’t. We’re doing it out of sportsmanship and for the sport that we love,” she said.