MANILA -– Gymnast Carlos Yulo emerged as the first double-gold medalist for the Philippines as the host country increased its gold medal haul to eight in the ongoing 6th ASEAN School Games at the Marikina Sports Complex.
Yulo, the National Capital Region (NCR) Palarong Pambansa champion, bagged the gold in vault event with 14.025 points to beat Thai Tikunporn Sunintomta and another Filipino bet Ivan Cruz who settled for silver and bronze medals, respectively.
The second gold of Yulo came from parallel bars event with 12.70 points, besting Brandon Benoly Luise of Malaysia.
With Yulo’s victory, the Philippines moved to fifth place with 8 gold, 12 silver and 12 bronze medals while Singapore skidded to sixth spot with 8-7-8 gold-silver-bronze medal haul going into the penultimate day of the seven-nation competition.
The other gold medals of the Philippines came from athletics courtesy of throwers Bryan Pacheco who set record in shot put and Joshua Patalud in javelin throw.
Tandem Emy Rose Deal and Angella Borbon captured gold in the table tennis’ girls doubles event while wushu team contributed with three golds won by Agatha Chrystenzen Wong in women’s taijiquan and tajijian all-around; Alieson Ken Omegan in nanquan and nangun; and Joel Casem in chan qung and long weapon event.
Meanwhile, Malaysia dominated the athletics competition with total 15 gold medals as it displaced Thailand on top of the medal tally with 28 gold, 24 silver and 19 bronze medals.
Thailand skidded to second spot with 21-18-24 followed by Vietnam (10-6-5) and Indonesia 9-18-10. Brunei is at the bottom with still no gold to show but with one silver and two bronzes.