Yulo cops 2 golds in his most productive Asian gymnastics campaign ever

MANILA, Philippines – Carlos Yulo unleashed a powerful final-day push at the OCBC Arena in Singapore to come through with his best performance in the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

The two-time world champion scooped up two gold medals — albeit in contrasting fashions — in vault and parallel bars and a bronze in high bar Sunday that capped what was his most productive effort in the event thus far.

At the end of the grueling competition, the Southeast Asian king from the Philippines collected a total of three mints, including one from his pet floor exercise the day before, the silver in the individual all-around Friday and a bronze.

It eclipsed the three-gold, one-silver harvest from last year in Doha, Qatar.

Yulo, attempting first in the vault, was surprisingly jittery and ran into problems with his landing in both of his tries and elicited an average score of 14.299 from his two jumps of 13.966 and 14.633.

It paled in comparison with his masterful 14.833 in the qualification phase — the best among all the finalists — that opened things up for the rest of the field to snatch the gold that should have been Yulo for the easy taking.

Mercifully, fortune favored the brave as the opposition bizarrely failed to take advantage and wound up worse with Uzbek Abdulaziz Mirvaliev eventually claiming the silver with a 14.083 and South Korean Kim Jaeho the bronze with a 13.766.

In parallel bars, Yulo was a different animal and didn’t leave anything to chance as he blew away the competition with an electric 15.266.

It was a magical routine that bumped off individual all-around gold winner Shinnosuke Oka (15.133) of Japan and Yin Dehang (15.100) from first and second to second and third and scooped up the gold himself.

Yulo completed his amazing showing by pinning the bronze with a 14.033 in the high bar, an event where he was given little chance to medal, much more to win, after he wound up only ninth and took the eighth and final spot only after two

two of the three Chinese who made the top eight were allowed to play.

China’s Tian Hao seized the gold with a 14.533 while Oka the silver with a 14.366.

In the women’s side, Emma Lauren Malabuyo added the floor exercise silver while Aleah Finnegan a balance beam bronze to the country’s total haul of three golds, two silver and three bronzes.

Finnegan accounted for the Filipinos’ other bronze that came in vault Saturday.