Carlos Yulo rules vault finals for second Olympic gold

Carlos Yulo needed just 24 hours to rewrite history. 

A day removed from his floor exercise gold medal run, the Filipino gymnast once again sizzled to reign supreme in the men's vault finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Bercy Arena on Sunday night (Philippine time). 

The 24-year-old gymnast, who on Saturday became the first male Filipino athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, nailed an impressive 15.166 points, lighting it up with a massive 15.433 on his first vault to gain the highest score among the eight gymnasts on the first leap. 

He then grabbed 14.800 on the second vault to take the lead, which he never relinquished even with four more athletes performing after him, including Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Artur Davtyan of Armenia. 

The 31-year-old Davtyan was the closest pursuer of Yulo, hammering a total of 14.966 to improve his previous Summer Games finish en route to the silver medal. 

Harry Hepworth of Great Britain took home the bronze medal by edging his teammate Jake Jarman, scoring 14.949 to finish third in his Olympics debut. 

Yulo's victory now sees the Philippines matching its Tokyo Olympics medal tally of four medals as boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas both punched their way to the semifinals of the women's 57kg and 50kg divisions. 

Also still in competition for Team Philippines are EJ Obiena who qualified for the pole vault finals and hurdlers John Cabang Tolentino and Lauren Hoffman who were relegated to repechage. Weightlifters John Ceniza, Elreen Ando, and Vanessa Sarno, and golfers Dottie Ardina and Bianca Pagdanganan have yet to start their respective campaigns.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News