The long wait for the Philippines’ first gold medal in the 20th Asian Games finally came to an end Thursday and its source came from somebody extra special.

Paris Olympics double gold medalist Carlos Yulo put a stop to all the worrying when he ruled his pet event — the floor exercise — in sensational fashion with a score of 14.666 points at the Rainbow Hall of the Nagoya City General Gymnasium.

The victory was particularly meaningful for the 25-year-old gymnast, who came up empty-handed in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and skipped the 2023 Hangzhou edition to focus on qualifying for the Paris Olympics.

The Asiad gold was also the lone major title missing from Yulo’s collection after he had already stamped his class in the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, FIG Apparatus World Cup, World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and the Olympics.

Yulo had to improvise midway through his routine after feeling that one of his passes was getting away from him.

“It’s already complete. So I’m just really happy and grateful,” Yulo said.

“Although that’s not the routine that I practiced earlier. In my second pass, my kick was a bit strong. I knew that I would overdo it if I continued with it, so good thing I had another routine.”

Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi settled for silver with 14.600 points, while Japan’s Tsukiyama Shoma took bronze with 14.566.

Karl Eldrew Yulo, Carlos’ younger brother, finished seventh with 12.223 points in his Asian Games debut.

The gold lifted the Philippines to 20th place with a 1-1-4 gold-silver-bronze tally after five days of competitions.

Yulo, however, is not done yet.

He will compete in the vault final at 1 p.m. Manila time before returning for the parallel bars final at 2:50 p.m., with a chance to add to his medal haul.

Alongside the floor exercise, it was also in the vault where Yulo won gold in Paris.

Gilas Pilipinas also moved closer to the podium after beating Chinese Taipei, 21-19, in the men’s 3x3 basketball quarterfinals at Kinjo Futo Station Square.

Skateboarders Jericho Francisco and Mazel Paris likewise advanced to the finals of the men’s and women’s park events, respectively, at the Aichi Sky Expo.

Kayla Sanchez, meanwhile, narrowly missed the podium after finishing fourth in the women’s 50-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.

Sanchez, who won a silver medal with Canada at the Tokyo Olympics at the same venue five years ago, clocked a new national record of 24.75 seconds, eclipsing her previous mark of 24.86 set at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California, last August.

Her new record, however, was not enough to secure a medal as Cheng Yujie of China edged Sanchez by 0.29 seconds for bronze.