Tiny eight-year-old gymnast is Palaro’s biggest toast so far
Arman Hernandez Jr. watched Carlos Yulo’s Olympics gold performances over and over on social media until it grew on him.
The 8-year-old from Don Carlos Village Elementary School in Pasay City found himself on track to duplicating the early Palarong Pambansa achievements of his idol after pocketing five gold medals in artistic gymnastics on Tuesday.
“I want to be an Olympic champion like him,’’ said Hernandez after impressive outputs in the individual all-around, floor exercise, vault and horizontal bar that propelled the National Capital Region to the team all-around title.
Apart from these mints, Hernandez likewise secured a bronze in the mushroom (an apparatus similar to the pommel horse, but smaller and circular), making him the athlete with the most number of medals so far in the Games organized by the Department of Education for the finest student-athletes in the elementary and secondary levels throughout the country.
“My mom made me choose between dancesport and gymnastics,” said Hernandez, who trained under Munehiro Kugimiya, the Japanese coach who molded Yulo into becoming the nation’s only double-gold Olympic medalist last year in the Paris Summer Games.
“They were expecting I would choose dancesport,’’ said Hernandez.
He made the right choice and nearly swept all the golds on offer after tallying 9.200 in the floor, 9.300 in the horizontal bar, 9.300 in the vault and 36.600 in the all-around.
Kizz and Deena Gungob teamed up with Hernandez in winning the team crown with 115.500 points.
Records fall
“Those videos (of Carlos and his brother Eldrew) really inspired me to try the sport and I’m happy that I’m doing good,’’ said Hernandez, whose best finish prior to his first Palaro was a silver medal in the floor exercise during the Philippine Sports Commission Batang Pinoy Games last year in Puerto Princesa City.
Five new records were installed in athletics—Jhul Ian Canalita of Central Visayas (secondary boys 5000-m run), Josh Gabriel Salcedo of Western Visayas (secondary boys discus throw), Central Luzon’s Alfred Talplacido (secondary boys 400m), Nico Villaran of Western Visayas (secondary boys’ 110-m hurdles) and NCR’s Cris Ivan Domingo (elementary boys’ 400m).
Canalita clocked 15:16.31, eclipsing the 27-year record of Cresenciano Sabal (15:38.4) while Salcedo’s 45.52-meter throw wiped out the 42.86-m heave of Western Visayas’ Airex Gabriel Villanueva back in 2023.
Talplacido set a new standard in 48.10 seconds, beating the 48.7 record of NCR’s Jomar Udtohan during the 2014 Palaro and Villaran’s 14 seconds flat was enough to topple Patrick Unso’s record (14.68) in the 2010 edition.
Domingo timed 54.29 seconds, just a split second faster than Western Mindanao’s Sajipa Bassal (54.30) 27 years ago, in setting a new standard.
