Diego Hypolito's star has been shining brightly in 2009. In the first five months of the year, the Brazilian gymnast has already won five medals at World Cup events. The last two to add to his collection are gold, and were won this Saturday in Glasgow, on the floor and vault apparatus.

First place on the floor exercise had a special flavor. Diego had promised to give the gold medal as a gift to his older brother, Edson Hypolito, who turned 27 last Friday. With 15,850 points, the gymnast achieved the highest score on the apparatus under the new scoring code. Silver went to British Kristian Thomas with 15,225 points, followed by Israeli Alexander Shatilov, who earned bronze with 15,050 points.

"As soon as I finished my floor exercise in yesterday's qualifying rounds, I called home to congratulate Edson. I couldn't be at his birthday dinner, but I promised I'd fight for the gold medal to honor him. With a lot of effort, I achieved this goal, and I dedicate this title to him, who was one of my biggest supporters at the beginning of my career," said Diego.

The Brazilian gymnast ended up adopting a new strategy in the final. Aiming to impress the judges, Diego performed a very confident routine, with few execution errors, and performed the "Hypolito 1" in his first pass, leaving out his new move, the "Hypolito 2." His starting score was 16,60.

"I thought I had to do a more confident routine. The 'Hypolito 1,' which usually really impresses the referees, ended up working," commented Diego, who performed the 'Hypolito 2' in the qualifiers, with a starting score of 16,80.

But the celebrations didn't stop there. In addition to the floor exercise, Diego competed in the vault final and also took gold with a score of 16,012. North Korea's Se Gwang Ri was second with 16,000, and Britain's Jeffrey Wammes was third with 15,875.

"I'm still numb from my vault performance. I'm immensely happy with this achievement. The two vaults I performed were the same ones I performed at the Pan American Games in Rio in 2007. While I dedicated the victory on the floor to my brother, I dedicate the gold medal on the vault to my coach Renato, who has been working intensely with me on the Japanese training method since the beginning of the season."

NEXT STAGE - Later this month, Diego will participate in another stage of the Gymnastics World Cup. This time, the Brazilian gymnast will compete for new medals in Moscow, Russia, on the 29th and 30th.

INCENTIVE – Right after the victories, Diego took the opportunity to vent his frustrations about the lack of encouragement for sports.

- “I hope these medals can serve as an incentive for companies interested in sponsoring my sport.”

RETURN FLIGHTS\ May 17th – British 247 (London-Guarulhos – 21:45pm – 05:15am)\ May 18th – TAM 8085 (Guarulhos-Galeão – 9:30am-10:30am)\

DIEGO'S MEDALS IN THE SEASON\ March 2009 (Cottbus-Germany) – Silver on floor and silver on vault\ April 2009 (Maribor-Slovenia) - Gold on floor\ May 2009 (Glasgow-Scotland) – Gold on floor and gold on vault\