The Filipino nation was glued watching on various media platforms and television as the final competition on gymnastics unfold before the world. Many viewers were expecting a good finish by Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo who brought with a record as the first male Filipino and Southeast Asian to win a medal in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship with his bronze medal finish in 2018. He too was won a gold medal in the same World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in 2019.
Such credentials made him among the athletes to watch in all gymnastics event in the 2024 Parish Olympics. People only had a glimpse of his world records but has not much idea about his rigorous training in Japan where he earned a degree in literature. In the events where he competed in the 2024 Parish Olympics, people were not much updated as most of the world audience were following other events such as track and field, ball games and boxing. The initial salvo inside the boxing ring had many Filipinos in both the men and women divisions who earned victories.
The updates in the boxing ring fueled expectations that there is a good chance to win the first gold medal for the Philippines. The attention was somehow diverted by side issues that drew public outcry when a female boxer halted her fight just seconds before the opening bell as the organizer allowed a transgender as her opponent. Negative reactions filled the various social media platforms as people opined that the transgender is still a male by his strength.
With Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo grabbing the limelight in the floor event as he came out the last competitor waiting for the final score after his outstanding performance, the world kept their fingers crossed as supporters prayed for the results to go in favor of the Filipino. A tense moment gripped the arena as Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo waited for the judges to flash the scores on the electronic scoreboard. With the world audience already aware of the scores obtained by the competitors from the other countries, it would not be hard to tell who will be on top of the competition.
Euphoria caught everyone, chiefly Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo when the scoreboard flashed his score of 6.600 for difficulty and 8.400 for execution with 0.0 penalty for a total score of 15.000 in the floor event. People watched in awe with the performance where even his competitors greeted him after the performance. The event was capped with the awarding of medals with Carlos Edriel Poquiz Yulo on center and the Philippine flag was raised for the first time in one hundred years and the Philippine National Anthem was sung by every Filipino all over the world.
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