Besana, Cruz join gymnasts’ gold rush

By Peter Atencio

PHNOM PENH—Gymnasts Juancho

Besana and Ivan Cruz proved that the Philippine gymnastics’ team isn’t an all-Carlos Yulo show after all following gold-medal feats on Tuesday in the men’s artistic gymnastics competitions of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the National Olympic Stadium here.

The gold-medal finishes of Besana and Cruz in the vault and the floor exercises, respectively, started off a productive day for gymnasts, with world champion Yulo picking up from where they left off with his own gold in the parallel bars, where he unseated defending champion Phuong Thanh Din for first place with 14.85 points.

The Vietnamese came in second with 14.4 points.

The 23-year-old Yulo, who captured his third straight all-around gold on Monday, his first in these games, missed a third one by a fraction of a point as he settled for a silver medal in the rings, no thanks to Nguyen Vanh Khan, who wested the crown from him with 14.2 points. Yulo submitted 14 points.

“Na-miss ko lang by .2 points. Wala namang problema,” said Yulo. “Masaya na po ako na nagawa ko nang maayos ang mga routines ko, at safe na po ako.”

The Philippines has garnered five golds and a silver so far in the sport.