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| Carlos Yulo is now a two-time gold medalist in the same edition. FIG |
MANILA—If one gold already makes the Philippines happy Olympic-wise, how about two?
From the same guy at that.
Carlos Yulo will leave Paris a two-time gold medalist as he ruled the vault finals on Sunday at the Accor Arena.
Yulo's first try set the tone for the rest of the final round as his near-perfect routine garnered him 15.433 points, the highest single-vault attempt score for the night.
After tallying a 14.8 in his second vault, he finished with an average of 15.116, which was already enough to deny Great Britain a 1-2 finish.
Barely 24 hours from his floor exercise championship, Yulo is now the first Filipino athlete to win multiple golds in the Olympics, all within the same year.
Artur Davtyan, the last to perform in the vault finals, scored two consistent runs for a 14.966 average to overtake the British duo of Harry Hepworth and Jake Jarman and take the silver.
Hepworth, who scored the best second attempt with 15.066 points, ended up with the bronze, and Jarman, the half-Filipino gymnast who joined Yulo on the podium yesterday in the floor finals, dropped to fourth.
A 0.1-point deduction in his first attempt eventually denied Jarman of the Top 3 finish.
Coupled with Nesthy Petecio's semifinal-clinching win against Xu Zichun barely an hour before the vault finals, the Philippines is now assured of at least four medals, matching the total haul Petecio, Hidilyn Diaz-Naranjo, Eumir Marcial, and Carlo Paalam got from 2021.
However, Yulo's two golds are already enough to say this is the Philippines' best Olympic performance ever right on the centennial of the country's participation in the global sports event.
“Answered prayers. We already broke the record in the Olympics, that's it,” Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino said from Paris.
There could be one more medal coming as EJ Obiena will play in the pole vault finals early Tuesday (Philippine Time).
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