Carlos Yulo returned to action with a bang while tennis breakout star Alex Eala continued her history-making run as they spearheaded a stellar outing for Filipino athletes in June.
Ten months after his unprecedented double-gold feat in the Paris Olympics, Yulo took his act to the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jecheon, South Korea and won his fourth straight title in his pet event, the floor exercise, with a winning of 14.600 points.
The 25-year-old dynamo from Leveriza district in Manila, who was champ in floor and vault in the 2024 Olympiad, complemented his Asian four-peat in the floor with bronze medals in the individual all-around (83.633), vault (14.333) and parallel bars (14.166).
On the rise since her upset binge and semifinal showing in the WTA 1000 Miami Open last March, 20-year-old Eala reached new heights in the WTA 250 Lexus Eastbourne Open in Great Britain.
Notching six victories from the qualifying to the main draw capped by a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 dispatching of Frenchwoman Varvara Andreyevna Gracheva in the semifinals, Eala barged into the championship round.
This made her the first Filipina to ever reach this stage in a WTA competition while lifting her to a new career high ranking of 56th. But in the end, Eala settled for runner-up honors after yielding a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10) loss to Australian Maya Joint.
The two young guns headlined the honorees in the Philippine Sportswriters Association’s monthly citation of achievers for the sixth month of 2025.
Joining them in the honor roll were aces from individual and team sports, both up-and-coming and experienced.
Four-division boxing titlist Nonito Donaire Jr. made his successful ring comeback at age 42, scoring a unanimous technical decision over Chile’s Andres Campos in Argentina to clinch the World Boxing Association interim bantamweight crown.
FIDE Master Alekhine Nouri, 19, ruled the rapid event and placed second in the blitz in the Asian Juniors Chess Championships in Waskaduwa, Sri Lanka, where John Jerish Velarde also got a podium finish in the rapid section.
The Philippine Canoe Kayak Dragonboat Federation team paddled to six golds, one silver and one bronze in the International Canoe Federation Dragon Boat World Cup in Inner Mongolia, China.
It was a historic time for the country’s female ice hockey squad and Alas Pilipinas Women, too.
The Pinays completed a five-game sweep of the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s Asia Cup in Al-ain, United Arab Emirates, capped by a huge 4-2 win over holder Iran en route to their first-ever gold in the tournament.
The Alas belles, for their part, captured the silver in the AVC Women’s Volleyball Nations Cup in Hanoi behind host Vietnam, surpassing last year’s bronze haul and resetting their best finish in the annual competition.