SHOULD the relatively so-so performance of Paris Olympics double gold medalist Carlos Edriel Yulo in the just-concluded 12th Asian Senior Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Jecheon, South Korea, be a cause of concern?
Given the lofty standards he set in the previous edition last year in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and his golden double in the last Paris Olympics months later, Yulo’s lone gold and three bronzes in the major South Korean transport hub seemed paltry in comparison.
The pint-sized Pinoy phenom made the Gymnastics Palace in the Uzbek capital his playground, tumbling away with four mints in the individual all-around, floor exercise, vault and parallel bars, setting the stage for his historic breakthrough in the French capital.
More than living up to expectations, the diminutive Filipino dynamo delivered the country’s first Olympic gymnastics gold on Aug. 3, 2024 by ruling his pet event, the floor exercise, with a high score of 15.000 points.
Not content with just one Olympic triumph, the “Tiny Twister” capped his epic campaign to mark the centennial jubilee of the country’s participation in the quadrennial sports showcase by capturing the vault gold as well with a top score of 15.116 points
Fast forward nine months later and his scores in the latest Asian meet took a dramatic dip compared to his tallies in both the Tashkent edition as well as his Olympic output.
In a sport where the difference between success and failure is measured in small percentages, Yulo’s individual all-around score in South Korea of 83.632 was more than 1.5 points lower than his victorious 85.298 tally in the previous meet.
Even his score in retaining the men’s floor exercise crown of 14.600 was off his 14.933 output the previous year, while his bronze scores in the vault (14.333) and parallel bars (14.166) were inferior to the 14.833 and 15.133, respectively, in both events in the 2024 edition.
It is worth noting that the winner of the men’s vault in Jecheon was unheralded Iranian Mahdi Olfati, who just scored 14.500 points.
Yulo’s mediocre stint in the Asian meet under coach Aldrin Castaneda might as well serve as a wake-up call for both of them if they aim to reprise the athlete’s Olympic success in the world championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, in October.
