MANILA — Carlos Edriel Yulo ended the Philippines’ wait for gold at the 2026 Asian Games, edging Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi by just 0.066 point to rule the men’s floor exercise final Thursday at Rainbow Hall of the Nagoya General Gymnasium in Japan.
The Filipino gymnastics star delivered when the country needed a breakthrough, posting 14.666 points on a difficulty score of 5.7 and an execution mark of 8.966 to secure the Philippine delegation’s first gold medal of the Aichi-Nagoya Games.
Karimi mounted a strong challenge but settled for silver with 14.600 points, while Japan’s Shoma Tsukiyama claimed bronze with 14.566.
South Korea’s Sunghyun Ryu and Jaeho Kim finished fourth and fifth with 14.366 and 13.600 points, respectively.
Yulo’s triumph added another major achievement to his decorated gymnastics career while providing a much-needed boost to the Philippine campaign following several near-podium finishes in other events.
His younger brother Karl Eldrew Yulo also competed in the floor exercise final but finished seventh with 12.233 points, built on a 5.3 difficulty score and 6.933 in execution.
Earlier, the Yulo brothers joined Juan Miguel Besana, Justine Ace de Leon and Zachary Nunes in steering the Philippines to sixth place in the men’s team all-around final with 227.359 points.
The Philippine women’s artistic gymnastics team of Levi Ruivivar, Haylee Garcia, Lauren Supnet and Kylee Kvamee likewise placed sixth with a combined 147.763 points.
Elsewhere, swimmer Kayla Noelle Sanchez narrowly missed the podium after placing fourth in the women’s 50-meter freestyle final with a time of 24.75 seconds.
Rosegie Ramos also finished fourth in the women’s 53-kilogram weightlifting competition with a total lift of 203 kilograms, while Eleaphraime Limmong failed to register a successful lift in three snatch attempts in the men’s 60-kg division.
Rower Joanie Delgaco placed sixth in the women’s single sculls final, while Team Philippines finished 13th in the team 10-meter air pistol medal round.
Shagne Yaoyao and Pia Sandrejas were lapped and did not finish the women’s cross-country final, while the tandem of Ranran Abdilla and Jeremy Francisco failed to advance to the knockout stage after a 0-2 defeat to Oman.
Gilas Pilipinas Women also bowed out of medal contention following an 83-71 loss to Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals of the women’s 5×5 basketball competition./PN
