MANILA, Philippines – If it ever needed more validation, Eldrew Yulo proved once again that he is one of the greatest athletes to grace the Palarong Pambansa.

Yulo completed a sweep of all six gold medals in the secondary boys’ artistic gymnastics as he reigned in the apparatus finals at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum on Friday, August 4, in possibly his last Palarong Pambansa stint.

The 15-year-old powered a golden surge for powerhouse NCR, bringing home the mints in floor exercise, vault, horizontal bar, and mushroom to add to the individual and team all-around crowns he won last Wednesday.

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He posted his best score in vault with 13.95 points, netted 13.5 points in floor exercise, and recorded 9.25 and 9.0 points in pommel horse and horizontal bar, respectively.

Yulo finished with the same score as NCR teammate Hillarion Palles in mushroom but won the tiebreak.

It marked the first time in six years that Yulo swept all possible gold medals.

Now an incoming Grade 10 student at Adamson University, Yulo last achieved the feat in 2017 in Antique when he captured five mints in the elementary level as a fourth-grader from Aurora A. Quezon Elementary School.

“I’m happy because this is the first time in a long while that I swept all the golds,” said Yulo in a mix of Filipino and English. “I cannot explain how happy I am.”

Overall, Yulo has won 20 gold medals in the Palarong Pambansa after pocketing four in Vigan in 2018 and five in Davao City in 2019.

Yulo, though, said it could be his last appearance in the annual joust for elementary and high school students as his coach, Reyland Capellan, stressed the need for him to “level up” and join international competitions.

“It is sad because I learned a lot from the Palaro,” said Yulo. “I’ve made a lot of friends here.”

The vault silver medalist in the junior level of the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Yulo said he and Capellan will prepare for an entire year for the next Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. – Rappler.com