For a number of athletes, the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines will be the final time they showcase their talents in the sporting arena.

Gymnast Agus Prayoko is among the athletes who have bade farewell at the Philippines Games with the 30-year-old feeling it was time to move on after 24 years in the sport.

The Philippine Games was Agus’ fifth appearance at the regional event after making his debut at the 2007 SEA Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. The 2019 Games will no doubt hold a special place in his heart, with the veteran ending his SEA Games career on a high, bagging his first and final gold medal in the vault at the biennial event.

Agus drew on all his experience during Wednesday’s final to silence the crowd at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum that was fully behind home favorite Carlos Edriel Yulo.

The crowd chanted, “Yulo, Yulo!”, when the Filipino gymnast shot to the top of the standings with a score of 13.7.

Agus was the last to perform. As he stood at the top of the run, he looked determined, the crowd’s chants doing nothing to break his concentration. Yoko’s breathtaking performance had not fazed him.

Yulo has been a star of the 2019 Games, winning two gold and five silver medals in artistic gymnastics. He rose to prominence after winning gold in the floor exercise at the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in October, securing his spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He is just the second Filipino to qualify for the 2020 Summer Games.

Calm and with undivided focus, Agus, who took up the sport at age 6, landed two beautiful vaults that netted him 13.734 points, knocking Yulo from the top spot.

“I didn’t see the other gymnasts’ scores [during the competition]. I did what I had learned during practice. That was it. I only focused on myself,” he told The Jakarta Post after the event.

Fellow Indonesian Aprizal Muhammad was unlucky to miss out on a medal after finishing fourth.

Prior to the SEA Games, Agus had acknowledged his limitations and knew he would not master every event in men’s artistic gymnastics. There are six events in artistic gymnastics: floor exercise, horizontal bar, parallel bars, pommel horse, still rings and vault.

In the lead up to the Philippines, Agus set his sights on one event alone, the vault, his forte, in which he had won bronze at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta. This bronze was the first Asiad men’s artistic gymnastics medal ever won by an Indonesian.

En route to the 2019 SEA Games, Agus faced the challenge of juggling his attention between his rigorous training schedule and his son’s health condition.

During the 2018 Asiad, Agus’ son was born prematurely and had to remain in the hospital for some time.

“As I was battling at the Asian Games, my son was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit [NICU]. He was there for two months,” he said.

“Throughout that year, I had to take him for several surgeries. His hip bone was detached. After the surgery, [the team of doctors] had to install a support that helped him to walk,” he said, adding that his son was now 1.5 years old.

The thought of resigning from the sport had crossed his mind several times long before the Philippines. After last year’s Asiad, he was determined to retire but was convinced to postpone his plans after the national gymnastics team failed to find a suitable replacement.

“I had planned to retire but I got a call from them [Indonesian Gymnastics Association] asking me to continue,” he said.

“I firmly believe that the PON [National Games] in Papua [in 2020] will be my final gymnastics competition,” he added.

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