Manila, Philippines, December 3, 2019: So star so good. The Philippines’ big hope of winning the country’s first gold medal in Olympic Games history, Carlos “Caloy” Yulo, was crowned individual all-around champion in men’s artistic gymnastics at the 30th SEA Games on Sunday. After winning gold in the men’s floor exercise at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in October, the 19-year-old Yulo is a genuine contender for gold in Tokyo next summer. The Philippines has won three silver medals and seven bronze medals in the Olympic Games for a total of 10 – five of them in boxing. One step on the road to Tokyo for Yulo is the SEA Games, and he did not disappoint the fans at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. Yulo scored 84.900 in the six routines to beat Vietnam's Dinh Phuong Thanh (82.350) for first place. Another Vietnamese, Le Thanh Tung, claimed the bronze with a score of 81.700. “This is different because this crowd is paying attention to me, unlike in Germany where nobody knows me,” Yulo told reporters. Yulo overwhelmed the opposition in the floor exercise, the same routine that led to a world title in Stuttgart, scoring 14.650, with Dinh being the closest at 13.900. The individual apparatus finals are set for Tuesday.
Olympic gold medal hope Yulo wows hometown crowd
