PHNOM PENH—Carlos Yulo was true to form in winning the gold medal in men’s individual all-around of artistic gymnastics in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the Marquee Tent of the National Olympic Stadium.
Yulo, world champion in floor exercise and vault, earned 84 points to handily beat Vietnam’s Thanh Thung Le (80.450) and Phuong Thanh Dinh (78.150) who finished 2-3 in the event.
The 23-year-old Tokyo Olympian towed Juancho Miguel Besana, Ivan Cruz, Ace de Leon, Jhon Santillan and Jan Timbang to the team all-around silver medal with 305.25 points.
Vietnam, which also did the trick in Hanoi last year, scored 313 points for the gold, with Malaysia taking the bronze (295.5).
Yulo said the result was worth it considering he and the team only had two weeks to train.
“I’m happy with the result because I had two weeks to prepare. I was able to do it and I’m so thankful,” Yulo said. “Training in Manila helped a lot because it’s so hot here in Cambodia. Our preparation helped us to get ready 100 percent.”
Earlier in the day at the Kep Beach Resort, Fernando Casares retained the men’s gold but Kim Mangrobang failed to win a fourth straight women’s tiara in triathlon won by a naturalized Cambodian athlete from France.
Casares won gold in 58 mi nutes and 33.5 seconds, beating Indonesia’s Rashif Yaqin (58:47) in the 750-meter swim, 20-km bike and 5-km run event. Andrew Kim Remolino was third in 59:53 for the bronze.
Mangrobang, who topped the women’s duathlon Sunday, clocked 1:07:24 to finish second behind Margot Garabedian (1:05:34.20), who previously raced for his native France and currently ranked 190th in the world.
The Philippines bagged three out of the seven gold medals in aquathlon (3), duathlon (2) and triathlon (2) and two silvers from Remolino in men’s aquathlon and Mangrobang.
With temperatures approaching 40s for several days, rains finally fell late afternoon on Monday, delaying the men’s pole vault final where Ernest John “EJ” Obiena was seeking a third straight gold medal.
Athletics officials halted play—as well as those in other outdoor venues in the Cambodian capital—for more than an hour as heavy rains soothed the entire city.
Team Sibol, meanwhile, swept its three encounters for a 3-1 victory over Vietnam in the League of Legends: Wild Rift event for the country’s first esports gold medal, while Ariana Evangelista struck silver in women’s crosscountry eliminator of mountain bike, a cycling discipline that’s hardly—if not at all—played back home.
Evangelista, the country’s No. 1 crosscountry Olympic rider, finished second behind Indonesia’s Darah Latifah and ahead of Thailand’s Warinthorn Phetprephan bagged bronze.
Host Cambodia continued to frolic in its first-time hosting of the biennial games and led the medals race with 34 gold, 28 silver and 31 bronze medals.
Thailand was a far second with 21-17-27 (gold-silver-broze), followed by Vietnam (18-31-21) and the Philippines (16-23-25).
Indonesia also had 16 gold medals but had less silvers and bronzes—14 and 37—to the Philippine haul.
Image credits: Roy Domingo