Munehiro Kugimiya, the Japanese coach that honed Paris Olympics double gold medalist Carlos Yulo into an elite champion, has been invited by the Gymnastics Association of Thailand to boost its training program.

In a Facebook post, the association said they have invited Yulo’s former mentor to teach and introduce techniques to the Thai national men’s gymnastics team until Aug. 21.

A series of photos of Kugimiya with the Thai gymnasts accompanied the post.

It can be recalled that Kugimiya is largely credited to Yulo’s success as his longtime coach until the two parted ways late last year.

Under Kugimiya’s tutelage, Yulo trained in Japan for several years and went on to study at a university that propelled him to win a number of high-ranked tournaments including the World Championships and the Asian Championships.

Thailand, which will be hosting the Southeast Asian Games next year, has won six silver medals in the previous edition in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and is presumably hoping to turn this into golds. At the 2021 SEAG in Hanoi, they bagged three golds.

Vietnam and Malaysia have been lording it over the medal standings of the sport in the Southeast Asian level, as well as the Philippines where Yulo delivers most of the load.

Yulo is coming off a historic showing in Paris where he bagged the floor exercise and vault gold medals to become the first Filipino multi-gold medalist in the Olympics.