CARLOS Edriel Yulo looked primed to book his fifth straight ticket to the World Championships, running second provisionally yesterday with a score of 85.930 points in the men’s individual all-around event of the 10th Artistic Gymnastics Senior Asian Championships at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
Performing in subdivision 1 with his teammates in the morning session, Yulo improved practically in all apparatuses, highlighted by 15.066 points in the parallel bars and 14.966 points in the floor exercise.
He also scored 13.266 in the pommel horse, 14.300 in the rings, 14.833 in the vault and 13.466 in the horizontal bar for a combined tally of 85.930, 2.163 points better than his runner-up output of 83.767 in the 2022 edition of the championships in Doha, Qatar.
The diminutive Filipino dynamo’s score surpassed the 83.333 output of China’s Shi Cong, who won the men’s individual all-around gold in Doha.
The top eight finishers in the men’s all-around finals will qualify for the 42nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships scheduled Sept. 30 to Oct. 8 in Antwerp, Belgium.
Yulo’s grip on the top spot seemed secure until the entry in subdivision 2 of the crack Japanese squad, led by former world junior champion Oka Shinnosuke in the afternoon session.
Also training in the same Tokushukai gym as Yulo, Shinnosuke, 19, swept into the provisional lead with an eye-popping score of 86.065 to relegate Yulo to the No. 2 spot while anchoring Japan to second place in the team event (256.694), just slightly behind China (256.762).
Th entry of China, Japan and Uzbekistan into the fray in subdivision 2 also caused an overhaul in the team and individual overall standings, although it was unlikely that the top five in the individual all-around would be disrupted, according to national team coordinator Bea Eusuya.
Despite Yulo’s outstanding outing and the scores of Juancho Miguel Besana (17th, 73.531) and Justine Ace de Leon (29th, 62.565), the Pinoy gymnasts, who were running second overall after subdivision 1 action, were pushed down to fifth place with a score of 237.193 points.
With one more subdivision to perform, Uzbekistan wheeled into the No. 3 spot (244.559) while Chinese Taipei (238.226) slipped to No. 4.
Based on the Asian Gymnastic Union’s rules, China, Japan and South Korea had already secured team spots to the worlds, Eusuya explained, leaving only two more tickets left to be disputed.
Set to compete today is the women’s squad of Fil-Ams Alea Finnegan, Elma Malabuyo, both former members of the US national team; Lucia Manzano and homegrown Lucia Gutierrez.
The Pinay bets are scheduled to perform at 5:30 p.m. today in subdivision 4.
With their US national team experience, Finnegan and Malabuyo are keen on qualifying for the worlds to represent the Philippines and, hopefully, all the way to the Paris Olympic Games in 2024 as well.
