Finnegan bags vault bronze in Asian meet

Showing that he remains heads and shoulders above the rest in Asia in his forte, Carlos Edriel Yulo reigned supreme in the floor exercise with a score of 15.300 points Saturday in the 10th Artistic Gymnastics Senior Asian Championships at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.

Yulo was in flawless form, matching the score he achieved in his breakthrough gold medal in the 39th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany in 2019 while also exceeding his tally of 14.933 when he ruled the same event in Asian meet in Doha, Qatar last year.

He was way ahead of Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Patanin and China’s Su Weide, who took the silver and bronze with scores of 14.366 and 114.330, respectively, in the continental gymnastics showcase.

Appearing in his first apparatus finals in the competition, John Ivan Cruz, a gold medalist in the event in the 32nd Cambodia Southeast Asian Games last month, wound up at the tailend of the eight finalists with a score of 11.433 points.

Yulo, who was second in the rings in the qualifiers three days ago with a score of 14.300 points , had a slight dip in form in the finals of the event and wound up fourth with 14.033 points, with Chinese veteran Lan Xingyu successfully retaining his title with a top score of 15.200 points.

Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Khanh Phong, who topped the event in the 32nd Cambodia SEA Games, bagged the silver (14.366) while Hong Kong’s Ng Kiu Chung bronze (14.100) in the penultimate day of the meet serving as the qualifying event for the world championships set Sept. 30 to Oct. 8 in Antwerp, Belgium.

World championships-bound Alea Finnegan also produced a podium finish, securing a bronze in the women’s vault event with a score of 13.483 points, becoming the first Filipina to medal in the Asian meet.

Reigning Asian vault queen and Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medalist Yeo Seojeong of South Korea tallied 14.317 points to retain her crown while Uzbekistan’s evergreen Oksana Chusovitina, the oldest athlete in the meet at 47, settled for the silver medal with 13.517 points.

Yulo was set to wrap up his stint on Sunday with the vault and parallel bars, which he both topped in the qualifiers last Thursday, while Malabuyo and Finnegan were to see action in the women’s floor exercise finals.