By Gab Pascual

Carlos Yulo ended his 31st Southeast Asian Games in dominant fashion, bagging two more gold medals in vault and the high bars to lead the country's artistic gymnastics team to their best-ever finish in the biennial meet, Tuesday, in Hanoi, Vietnam.

PHOTO: The Summit Express

With the recent success, this will be the first time in SEA Games history that the Philippines will take the top rank in the discipline, ending the triumphant campaign with seven golds, four silvers, and one bronze. 

Vaulting his way to gold, Yulo showcased his World Championships-level performance and connected on a near perfect dragulescu routine to tally a score of 14.700, edging Thailand’s Tikumporn Surintornta with 14.250 and secure the top podium at his first event of the day. 

Meanwhile, another Filipino took a shot on the vault podium as Juancho Miguel Besana snatched the bronze medal, averaging a score of 14.017. 

After his golden performance in vault, Yulo replicated his 2019 SEA Games parallel bars finish, tallying a score of 14.9 to secure the silver, behind Vietnam’s Dinh Phuong Thanh who overcame him with a 15.133 finish.

However, closing his run at the high bars, Yulo connected on every release and re-grasp, matching the Vietnamese gymnast with a score of 13.867, giving way to a gold medal tie — his fifth gold in the meet. 

Yulo finished with a medal haul of 7 medals — 5 golds and 2 silvers, ending his 31st SEA Games stint in dominating fashion. 

Culminating with the women’s balance beam finals, PH bet Aleah Finnegan makes up for a prior beam fumble as she snatches her second silver medal. Finnegan bowed down to Malaysia’s Rachel Li Wen Yeoh with a 13.367 performance, 0.200 behind Yeoh.

Yulo finishes with a medal haul of 5 golds and 2 silvers, ending his 31st SEA Games stint atop the leaderboard. 

PH bet Aleah Finnegan also finished strong with 2 golds and 2 silvers after making up for a prior beam fumble and snatching her last silver medal in the women's beam finals.