He joined two events on Monday, and won medals in both.
Carlos Yulo continues to make the Southeast Asian Games his playground as he dazzled his way towards the gold medal in the men’s individual all-around event on Monday in Cambodia.
Yulo scored a total of 84 points that outlasted Vietnam’s bets, Thanh Tung Le and Phuong Thanh Dinh, who finished second and third, respectively.
The Filipino gymnast’s gold medal is the 16th for the Philippines in this 32nd edition of the SEA Games. The victory also marks Yulo's third straight gold medal in the men's individual all-around event, having also won in the 2019 SEA Games in Manila, and in the 2021 games in Vietnam.
Despite his gold medal-clinching performance, Yulo admitted to having a less-than-ideal timeline in preparing for the SEA Games.
"'Yung sa preparation lang din po talaga nagkulang, parang two weeks prep lang ang nagawa ko," the champion gymnast told One Sports.
Two weeks, it turns out, was just enough for a win.
"Nagawa ko naman po 'yung target ko and hindi naman po ako nagkamali, kaya sobrang thankful po," said Yulo, who also just recovered from an ankle injury.
The bemedaled athlete, who won five golds and two silvers in the biennial meet in Hanoi, also added a silver to his trophy case on Monday as part of the men’s artistic gymnastics team.
Yulo is set to compete again tomorrow in the horizontal bar and parallel bar events, where he previously won gold and silver, respectively. Fans will surely expect another strong performance from one of the Philippine's strongest medal bets.
(With reports from Denise Tan, One Sports)