Gymnast Finnegan seizes gold in vault title defense

The Manila Times

Gymnast Finnegan seizes gold in vault title defense  Filipino Olympic gymnast Aleah Finnegan defended her vault title at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games at the Thammasat University Rangsit Campus in Thailand on Dec. 11, 2025. After a confusion and recomputation of scores, Finnegan totaled 13.433 points on 13.7 in her first vault and 12.76 in her second with a bonus of 0.200 to claim the fifth gold of the Philippines in the meet. Finnegan won her first SEA Games vault gold in the 2021 edition in Vietnam where she also won in the team event, but couldn't defend her vault title back in 2023 in Cambodia where the women's artistic gymnastics were not held. Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Quynh Nhu finished second to Finnegan and  claimed the silver medal with 13.400 points, while Malaysian Kang Xian grabbed the bronze with 12.966.   VIDEO BY NIEL V. MASOY  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel -  vhttps://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe   Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net     Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook   Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram   Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter   DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion     Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital Sign up to our newsletters: https://tmt.ph/newsletters    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify   Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts   Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic   Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #themanilatimes  #philippines #tmtnews  #sports

Transcript

00:00I think this time around it just means so much more I think so much more went

00:15into this round I knew it was at stake I knew my competitors who I was going up

00:19against her all I wanted to do is hit a clean vault and then we hit the clean

00:23vault and it took us forever to get the results I was kind of chasing around the

00:27arena trying to figure out what our final scores was because we weren't really sure

00:31so I'm a bit emotional still it's just finally setting settling in because it

00:36really didn't hit me until we got a phone to the podium to where they

00:39officially announced it but I'm just so overjoyed and just so thankful for all

00:43the support and I'm just I'm just so happy during the long way I really I was I

00:54satisfied however the competition you know however the scores fell but I was a

00:59bit nervous because the score they accidentally flashed a wrong score like

01:03just for a second on the screen and so you know I looked at my coach and we were

01:07talking to the judges and we weren't really sure like how they got that score

01:10because the scores that we originally saw were different so then you know we're

01:14still just trying to calculating so much math we're thankful for our Philippine

01:18judges and we're thankful for you know all the staff that we're making sure that

01:21okay this is the final score and this is you know the correct order and it was a

01:26bit confusing and very stressful but ultimately at the end I'm very thankful

01:30for that outcome tomorrow I will be heading into the balance beam final and I'm

01:36really excited for the beam because I think my difficulty is up there to really

01:40compete with the rest of Southeast Asia here and I think I'm really excited

01:43going in there it's our last event and I'm just really to especially after

01:48today having this really just gives the extra motivation going into tomorrow's

01:52finals just after today's today's results winning the gold medal extra

01:57motivation going into tomorrow's beam final next hopefully some downtime I think

02:03following world championships and then obviously going all gas no brakes going

02:08into the Southeast Asian games I'm looking forward to some downtime a bit and

02:11then looking ahead potentially Asian championships and then following the

02:15world championships for 2026 as well but again just how we take every

02:19competition we just take it one competition at a time so nothing set in

02:22its own but definitely looking ahead to next year so this is actually the first

02:26competition that women's gymnastics has been in the sea games since I last

02:30competed at Vietnam so the last time that it was female gymnastics you know I

02:35knew that I had one gold and so going into this I knew what I was capable of

02:39doing but I also knew that there was plenty of competition going out I mean the

02:43scores were so tight it was I think a half a tenth going in from first and

02:47second like it was so close and so I knew that going into this competition but I

02:52also knew that just you know doing my normal just doing what I do every single

02:55day and ultimately ended up okay I think today is the most special one because

03:01there's just been so much change that has happened especially me being in the

03:10Philippines from August up until now my grandmother had passed away I moved to a

03:15different country figuring out so many news having some also personal issues that

03:21go on to behind the scenes and so knowing what happens behind the scenes knowing that

03:27I still persevered through all of the hardships like I sat there before my

03:33vault and I was just praying the whole time I said Jesus be with me on this

03:36fault because you know I I'm nothing without Jesus and so I knew that he was

03:40with me the entire time through and I just I give all the glory to God

04:06you

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