FULFILLING a mission of redemption, Carlos Edriel Yulo bagged gold and silver medals yesterday at the close of the 50th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.
Shrugging of his failure to retain the floor exercise title last Saturday, Yulo, 21, was able to slay the ghosts of the Tokyo Olympic Games that had haunted him for months with impressive performances in the men’s vault and parallel bars finals at the packed Kitakyushu City Gymnasium.
Going for broke, he banked on a difficult second try to rule the men’s vault finals with a record-breaking score of 14.916 points, surpassing his 14.716 tally when he finished fourth in the same event during the Tokyo Olympics.
Hometown bet Yonekura Hidenobu (14.866) took the silver while Israeli Andrey Medvedev won the bronze medal (14.649).
A second mint seemed to be in bag for Yulo as he led halfway through the men’s parallel finals after scoring 15.30 points, until he was outshone by China’s Hu Xuwei, the sixth performer, and snatched the gold medal with a slightly better tally of 15.466 points.
The pint-sized Filipino was sandwiched by two Chinese, with Shi Cong copping the bronze medal by scoring 15.066 points.
It was a sterling outing for Yulo, who surpassed his finish in the 2019 edition in Stuttgart, Germany when he twirled and tumbled away for the gold medal in the floor exercise.
Yulo wowed the crowd on his second vault with a picture-perfect “Dragulescu,” a routine named after four-time Romanian world vault champion Marian Dragulescu, netting him a high score of 15.033 points after a tally of 14.800 points on his first try. The two scores are averaged to determine the overall tally of the gymnasts vying in the event.
As the first among eight finalists, Yulo was virtually flawless in doing the handspring double front somersault with a half-turn, setting the tone for the rest of the gymnasts, who were pressured into trying to match or surpass his feat.
Ukrainian Chepurnyi Nazar, who topped the qualifiers, fell flat on all fours in his second attempt as the last entry in the event, sealing the deal for Yulo.
It was a fruitful stint for Yulo, who relinquished his floor exercise title when he stepped out of bounds during his routine and was penalized .300 points. He finished a dismal fifth with 14.556 points, his worst outing in his pet event in three straight world championships.
What was heartbreaking was that without the costly penalty, Yulo could have retained his world title with a score of 14.866, which would have been better than the 14.800 of newly-crowned floor exercise champion and Italian veteran Nicola Bartolini.
