Thanks to Carlos Yulo and Nesthy Petecio, the Philippines secured gold medals on the same weekend
Photo from Inquirer Sports
On Oct. 12, Carlos Yulo made history for Philippine sports after claiming the country’s first world gymnastics gold at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. The 19-year-old is also the second Filipino to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after placing 18th out of 160 athletes in the same tournament.
The gymnast tallied a total of 15.300 points (8.800 in execution and 6.500 in difficulty) to defeat Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat and China’s Xiao Ruoteng. Yulo also qualified for the floor exercise final of the tournament after placing seventh in the category.
And just 24 hours after Yulo’s achievement, Nesthy Petecio dominated the featherweight division of the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship in Ulan-Ude, Russia on Oct. 13.
Petecio became the second Filipina boxer to bring pride to the country after winning the tournament via split decision over Russia’s Liudmila Vorontsova. The 27-year-old got the nod of three of the five judges, 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28, thanks to her solid blows that ruled all three rounds.
Petecio will also be competing at this year’s SEA Games as she aims for her first gold medal in the biennial meet happening this November.