Carlos Edriel Yulo delivered the Philippines’ first gold medal at the 20th Asian Games after ruling the men’s artistic gymnastics floor exercise at the Nagoya City General Gymnasium in Japan.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist scored 14.666 points on a 5.7 difficulty score, edging Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi, who finished with 14.600 points on the same difficulty.
Japan’s Shoma Tsukiyama settled for bronze with 14.566 points on a 5.6 difficulty score.
The victory adds another major title to Yulo’s decorated career after he won gold in both the floor exercise and vault events at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Paris, Francisco reach finals
The Philippines also secured two spots in the skateboarding finals as Mazel Paris and Jericho Francisco advanced in their respective park events at the Aichi Sky Expo.
Paris, 12, finished fourth overall in the women’s park preliminaries after scoring 73.93 points in Heat 2. Japan’s Mizuho Hasegawa topped the heat with 89.15 points.
“It was super fun. I landed my runs, and that was my goal. For tomorrow, I’m gonna pray to land my runs and to have fun,” Paris said in a Philippine Olympic Committee news release.
Francisco likewise placed fourth overall in the men’s park event with 80.64 points.
“I had a really, really good time. I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve that I’m gonna pull out in practice, and then just have fun and enjoy,” he said.
Skateboarding finals set Friday
Paris and Francisco will return to action on Friday as they compete for medals in their respective finals.
The women’s park skateboarding final is scheduled for 9 a.m. Manila time, followed by the men’s event at 11:30 a.m.
With Yulo already securing the Philippines’ first gold, attention now turns to the two young skateboarders as they look to add to the country’s medal haul.
