Carlos Yulo wins individual all-around gold at SEA Games 2023 with Vietnam retaining team title

Carlos Yulo claimed the individual all-around gold at the Southeast Asian Games on Monday (8 May) ahead of the Vietnamese pair of Le Thanh Tung and Dinh Phuong Thanh, who came second and third, respectively. The trio scored 84.000, 80.450 and 78.150, and finished in the same positions as the previous edition at Hanoi 2021.

That’s three times a winner for the six-time world medallist, Yulo, whose scores also counted toward the team competition in which his Philippines squad came second to Vietnam’s gold medal winners. Malaysia rounded out the podium, also in a repeat of the placings at the last SEA Games, with the teams scoring 313, 305.25 and 295.50.

Used to competing on the world stage alone, Yulo told Olympics.com post competition that he was "nervous" ahead of the first apparatus, despite his experience on the world stage.

"It’s really different when I do it by myself – in the individual all-around – and the team competition is really making me hyped, and the atmosphere as well. I really loved it."

The crowd loved it too. All eyes were on the 2019 world champion on floor, with Yulo wowing the Cambodia crowd with his tumbling, scoring 14.350. His other favoured apparatus, vault, in which he claimed the 2021 world title, secured a mark of 15.000. 

Yulo also scored 14.950 on parallel bars, on which he will compete in the final as well as high bar, maximising his quota of finals due to a limit of four events in which a gymnast can compete at Cambodia 2023. There is also no women's edition for SEA Games 2023.

Apparatus finals take place on Tuesday 9 May, where six more medals will be won – in floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar.