Nesthy Petecio, Carlos Yulo get P1M from MVP Sports Foundation

MANILA, Philippines—The cash windfall continued to pour in for newly-minted world champions Nesthy Petecio and Carlos Yulo.

After getting an incentive of P1 million each from the Philippine Sports Commission and additional million from President Rodrigo Duterte for their gold medal feat, Petecio and Yulo also received P1 million along with iPhones from Philippine sports patron Manny V. Pangilinan.

The two made courtesy calls with Pangilinan, chairman of the MVP Sports Foundation, showing off their gold medals.

Yulo made history as the first Filipino gymnast to win the gold in the Artistic World Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

The 19-year-old Yulo, who came home to a hero’s welcome, couldn’t be more grateful for the help he’s continuing to receive. Even better, his siblings are likely to get support for their gymnastics careers from Pangilinan.

“We’d like to meet his family,” said Pangilinan. “Caloy said he had two siblings, 9 and 11, who were also into gymnastics so maybe we can help them out because this sport really fits our physique.”

“We’re very happy seeing that the programs we are supporting are bearing fruit. You could see the talent that our Filipino athletes have and that they only need the proper training,” said MVPSF President Al Panlilio.

Petecio followed Yulo’s feat less than 24 hours later with another gold for the Philippines after ruling featherweight division of the 2019 AIBA Women’s Boxing World Championships.

She went all the way from the Round of 64 and beat the odds.

“We have a male gymnast and a female boxing champion,” Panlilio said. “I hope this inspires younger athletes out there to chase their dreams and maximize their talent. Our support is gender agnostic and it is not limited to select sports either. We can’t support everybody because we also have limited resources but we’ll continue to invest on Filipino athletes.”

“Sports is all about finding heroes,” closed Pangilinan. “Now we have a heroine in Nesthy and a hero in Caloy.

(C) Mark Giongco, Philippine Daily Inquirer