A floor routine worth 14.666 points ended the Philippines’ search for a gold medal at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Thursday, September 24, and gave two-time Olympic champion Carlos Yulo the one major title missing from his résumé.
Yulo’s winning routine carried a 5.7 difficulty score and an 8.966 execution mark, with Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi taking silver at 14.600, OneSports reported. The final was staged at the Nagoya City General Gymnasium, also known as Rainbow Hall.
The Asiad podium had escaped Yulo twice before. At 18, he competed at the 2018 edition in Indonesia and went home empty-handed, placing fourth on vault and seventh on floor even after topping floor qualification, according to The Manila Times. He did not compete in Hangzhou in 2023 because those Games overlapped with the World Championships, which served as a qualifying event for the Paris Olympics.
The victory came after the Philippine delegation spent the opening days without a title. By Wednesday, the country had five medals, the latest a bronze from Marie June Adriano in women’s kumite -50 kilograms, and its best finish remained a silver from Jean Claude Saclag in mixed martial arts, the Inquirer reported.
Yulo entered the final as the top qualifier despite a difficult Monday, September 21. His 14.6 on floor edged South Korea’s Ryu Sung-hyun at 14.566 and Japan’s Shoma Tsukiyama at 14.166, but a botched first landing nearly cost him a place in the vault final. He scored only 13.166 on that attempt before recovering with 14.133, averaging 13.649.
“It was too challenging today, this wasn’t what I expected,” Yulo told the POC Media Pool after qualifying. Of the vault, he added: “I grabbed badly.”
His floor title in Nagoya adds to a record that includes Olympic gold on floor and vault in Paris in 2024, a world floor title in 2019 and world vault titles in 2021 and 2025. In June, he won the floor exercise at the Asian Championships in Zunyi, China, for a fifth consecutive edition.
His younger brother, Karl Eldrew Yulo, shared the final floor with him. The 18-year-old debutant performed third, just ahead of his brother. Eldrew placed seventh with 12.233, OneSports reported, after qualifying fourth with 13.966.
The older Yulo has spoken openly about learning from his sibling. “I can’t do what he does on the high bar. I ask him about how it feels and about the technique,” he said.
Both brothers had already competed together in Wednesday’s team final, where the Philippines finished sixth with 227.359 points as China took gold, Japan silver, and Chinese Taipei bronze.
The vault, horizontal bar and parallel bars finals are set for Friday, September 25. Yulo is entered in vault and parallel bars, while Eldrew will compete on the horizontal bar. Miguel Besana, the 2023 SEA Games vault gold medalist, will also contest the vault final after qualifying fourth with 13.933 points.
