John Ivan Cruz vaults to SEA Video games gold after failed title protection in ground train

Gymnast John Ivan Cruz extends the Philippines’ golden streak in males’s vault within the SEA Video games as he follows within the footsteps of Carlos Yulo and Juancho Miguel Besana

CHONBURI, Thailand – One door might have closed for John Ivan Cruz, however he made certain to profit from the chance when one other one opened.

The gymnast from Manila gained a gold medal for the second straight Southeast Asian Video games as he shared the highest prize within the males’s vault on the Thammasat College Rangsit Campus in Pathum Thani on Friday, December 12.

Cruz redeemed himself after he failed to succeed in the ultimate of the boys’s ground train, the occasion the place he gained his first SEA Video games gold within the 2023 Cambodia version.

Though Cruz completed fifth within the ground train {qualifications}, he did not make it to the ultimate as just one gymnast per nation certified, with Justine Ace de Leon advancing because the second-best qualifier.

“My important goal was to have the ability to defend the gold in ground however that is what God gave us, so I didn’t waste the prospect,” stated Cruz in Filipino. “I centered nicely and rested nicely for this.”

Cruz was initially adjudged the silver medalist earlier than a rating inquiry by the Philippines resulted in him getting a mean of 13.833 factors, the identical rating as Malaysia’s Muhammad Sharul Aimy.

Cruz and Aimy ended up as co-gold medalists, whereas Thailand’s Tikumporn Surintornta received the bronze with 13.717 factors.

Due to Cruz, the Philippines gained gold within the occasion for the third straight SEA Video games following victories by Carlos Yulo in 2021 and Juancho Miguel Besana in 2023.

Yulo skipped this SEA Video games over participation restrictions by the hosts, assured that his teammates can get the job performed.

Cruz didn’t disappoint, whereas De Leon added a pair of bronzes in males’s ground train and nonetheless rings.

The Philippines gained a complete of six medals in creative gymnastics as Aleah Finnegan bagged the ladies’s vault gold and steadiness beam bronze whereas Haylee Garcia clinched the ladies’s uneven bars silver. – Rappler.com