MANILA, Philippines — In the Palarong Pambansa men’s artistic gymnastics competition at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum, all 90 participants aspire to be like world champion Carlos Yulo.
It included Yulo’s 15-year-old brother Karl, who showed he has what it takes to become like his popular sibling, and was heavily favored to make the finals of all five events he is joining and possibly six if his National Capital Region team of three would qualify.
Yulo was so impressive in the floor exercise where he came through with an electric performance that many believed should catapult him straight to Friday’s medal round.
“Hopefully, makapasok sa lahat,” said Yulo, who was hugged by his mother Angelika following his breathtaking routine.
Yulo, of course, was hoping to surpass his five-gold haul in the last staging of the annual meet for elementary and high school students in Davao City four years ago.
Four swimming records fell at the Marikina Sports Complex pool, including one by the Big City’s Krystal Ava David in the elementary girls’ 200-meter individual medley where she clocked two minutes and 37.32 seconds.
The 12-year-old Colegio de San Agustin student shattered the five-year-old meet mark of 2:33.12 set by NCR’s Michaela Jasmine Mojdeh in Vigan, Ilocos Sur—her second record-breaker after she rearranged the 100m breaststroke standard the day before.
Joining the record spree were Albert Jose Amaro of Bicol in the secondary boys 50m butterfly, Clara Yzabela delos Santos of NCR in the secondary girls 50m breaststroke, and the NCR secondary girls 200m freestyle relay team of Cezar Nazerano, Victoriano Martin Tirol, Jared Magnus Cheng and Arbeen Miguel Thruelen.