Carlos Yulo Wins Second Asian Games Gold in Nagoya

NAGOYA, Japan — Carlos Yulo stood atop the men's vault podium at the 20th Asian Games on Friday with a second gold medal around his neck, won less than a day after his first. The 26-year-old Filipino gymnast averaged 14.599 across his two vaults to edge Iran's Mahdi Olfati by 0.066 points, according to results reported by Radyo Pilipinas. Both of the Philippines' gold medals at these Games now belong to Yulo.

The numbers show how close the final was. Yulo opened with a 14.733, built on 5.6 in difficulty and 9.133 in execution, then followed with a 14.466 on his second attempt, where his difficulty dropped to 5.2 but his execution rose to 9.266. Olfati opened with a 15.100, the highest single vault of the final, before faltering on his landing in the second round. Judges gave that attempt 8.866 in execution with a 0.1 penalty, for 13.966 and a 14.533 average. Hong Kong's Ng Ka Ki took bronze with 14.116, and fellow Filipino Juancho Miguel Besana finished fifth with 13.783.

The victory came barely 24 hours after Yulo's floor exercise triumph, where he scored 14.666 on 5.7 in difficulty and 8.966 in execution. Kazakhstan's Milad Karimi took silver that night at 14.600 and Japan's Shoma Tsukiyama claimed bronze with 14.566, separated by the same razor-thin margin as the vault final. Yulo's younger brother Eldrew placed seventh on floor with 12.233. The floor gold was the Philippines' first of the Games, and the vault win lifted the delegation to 13th in the medal table, Explained PH reported.

Redemption eight years in the making

This was the title Yulo had been missing. His only previous Asian Games appearance came at Jakarta 2018, where, as a teenager, he qualified first for the floor final and then fell during a tumbling pass, crashing to seventh. Speaking after the win in Nagoya, Yulo told Reuters the medal felt "like winning the Olympics" and called his comeback "a good story," saying he had redeemed that earlier disappointment.

Since then, his career has gone to heights few gymnasts reach. Yulo became the Philippines' first double Olympic gold medalist at Paris 2024, winning both floor and vault, and his resume already held world, Asian championship and Southeast Asian Games titles before this week. Much of that rise happened in Japan, where he has spent years training. He said the Asian Games gold was another milestone on the road to defending his titles at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, though his focus was on staying healthy and enjoying the sport.

From a bad landing to the top step

Yulo nearly missed the final entirely. On Monday, during qualifying, his hand slipped on the table during his first attempt and he landed flat on his back. That vault scored 13.166, and he needed his second attempt to scrape into the eight-man final in seventh place, the lowest seed a reigning Olympic vault champion could reasonably expect to hold, according to ElysPlanet.

Four days later, his two vaults were the cleanest of his week, and when Olfati's second attempt fell short, the gold was settled. Yulo had gone from seventh seed to Asian champion on the same apparatus in one week.

A family affair and a near-miss

Eldrew Yulo, 18, earned bronze in the horizontal bar final after tying Kazakhstan's Milad Karimi at 13.666 and winning the tiebreaker. It capped a debut Asian Games for the younger brother, who also competed in the floor final and the team competition, where the Philippines placed sixth.

Yulo's bid for a third gold the same day fell just short. He finished fourth in the parallel bars final with 14.300, behind China's Zou Jingyuan, who won with 15.500, Japan's Shinnosuke Oka at 14.500 and Uzbekistan's Rasuljon Abdurakhimov at 14.433, according to Trendrod. The Asian Games continue through the October 4 closing ceremony, with the Philippine Olympic Committee targeting eight golds, double the country's best showing since the 1950s, ElysPlanet reported.

Yulo celebrated the floor victory with his coach, Aldrin Castañeda, and the week carried a family note: competing beside his younger brother at the Asian Games for the first time, he called it an honour to represent the Philippines with Eldrew on the same team, according to ElysPlanet. Before the Games, Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion had predicted Carlos Yulo could win three golds in Nagoya; the parallel bars result leaves him one short of that mark.

Sources: Spillr PH (via Reuters), ElysPlanet, Trendrod.