Carlos Yulo bags PHL’s 1st Asian Games gold, rules floor exercise

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Philippines couldn’t be any prouder of you, Carlos Yulo.

Eight years after a forgettable campaign during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang, when he failed to clinch a single podium finish in men’s artistic gymnastics, the Filipino superstar used all those lessons to redeem himself and bring home the PHL delegation’s first gold medal of the 20th Asian Games by topping the floor exercise event on Sept. 24, 2026.

The Paris Olympic gold medalist entered his pet event with sheer determination and hunger to win, pulling off a flawless routine to top the scoresheet with a title-clinching tally of 14.666.

Yulo had a strong start to his routine, completing all his set moves while securing successive perfect landings that drew loud cheers from the crowd.

It was nothing but spectacular. Yulo brought out creative moves from his repertoire, including an end-to-end double dive and a jaw-dropping three-and-a-half-twist dismount capped by a perfectly balanced landing.

Seconds after completing the twisting dismount, the Filipino bet shouted in joy and raised both arms in satisfaction after successfully executing the degree of difficulty he had put into his routine to impress the judges.

With the way Yulo maximized the floor and showcased his strengths, the judges awarded him this edition’s floor exercise gold medal, edging Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi and Japan’s Shoma Tsukiyama.

It was a tightly contested head-to-head battle between Yulo and Karimi as the representative from Kazakhstan garnered a total score of 14.600, just 0.066 points short of matching the Filipino’s score for the gold.

However, Yulo edged Karimi in the execution component of the scoring sheet with a score of 8.966 compared with the Kazakhstani’s 8.900.

With the historic win, Yulo added the Asian Games to his prestigious collection, which includes two Olympic golds, three World Championships, 12 Asian Championships and nine Southeast Asian Games wins.

Salamat sa lahat ng ibinuhos mo at mabuhay ka, Carlos Yulo!