MANILA, Philippines – For the second straight Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Carlos Yulo emerged as the best performing male athlete.

Yulo ended his dominant campaign in the continental showpiece in Singapore with three golds, one silver, and one bronze as he retained his parallel bars title and finished a surprise third in horizontal bar on Sunday, June 18.

Also ruling the floor exercise and vault on top of his silver in the individual all-around, the Filipino eclipsed his three-gold, one-silver haul in the last Asian championships.

Yulo, who topped the parallel bars qualification with 15.066 points, raised the bar with a remarkable 15.266 points in the final to relegate Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka and China’s Yin Dehang to runner-up finishes.

Oka seized the lead with 15.133 points before Yulo – the seventh to perform out of the eight finalists – climbed to the top spot following his outstanding performance that netted him 8.966 in execution and 6.3 in difficulty.

It was payback for Yulo after he lost to Oka by .135 points in the individual all-around, almost the same margin as the .133 points with which he beat the Japanese for the parallel bars crown.

Yin bagged bronze with 15.1 points.

In the horizontal bar, Yulo caught the competition by surprise as he clinched bronze with 14.033 points after barely making the final.

Yulo placed ninth in the horizontal bar qualification with 13.466 points – clinching his final berth thanks to the two-gymnast-per-country rule – but saved the best for last with a medal at stake.

China’s Tian Hao claimed the horizontal bar gold after posting 14.533 points, while Oka copped silver with 14.366 points.

With Yulo leading the way, the Philippines wound up as the second-best performing nation with three golds, two silvers, and three bronzes for a total of eight medals, just behind China (eight golds, two silvers, three bronzes).

In the distaff side, Emma Malabuyo earned silver in the floor exercise, while Aleah Finnegan bagged a pair of bronzes in the vault and balance beam.

Yulo, Finnegan, and Kylee Kvamme also qualified for the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium in September as they look to secure their berths in the 2024 Paris Olympics. – Rappler.com