REDEMPTION beckons for ace gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo, who had a solid outing in the Paris Olympic Games men’s artistic gymnastics all-around qualifying competitions that ended at the Bercy Arena early yesterday morning (Sunday night in France) in the French City of Lights,
Competing in Subdivision 2, Yulo, 24, sparkled in his first and favorite event, the floor exercise, with a high score of 14.766 points, good for second overall, while propelling him to ninth overall in the men’s individual all-around standings with a total of 83.631 points in six events.
The two-time world champion also flourished in the vault, scoring 14.566 points for sixth place, enhancing his prospects of finally bringing home a medal from the quadrennial sports showcase after his disastrous Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago.
His other scores were 13.066 in the pommel horse (40th); rings, 13.00 (49th); parallel bars, 14.553 (19th) and horizontal bar, 13.466 (27th).
A total of 26 bets, including Yulo, advanced to the finals of the event on Wednesday while the top eight in each apparatus enter the finals this Saturday starting with the men’s floor exercise.
The Pinoy campaigner’s stint merited mention in the International Gymnastics Federation website, which noted that “Carlos Yulo had a happier time in Paris than he did in Tokyo, where he admitted the pressure had affected him. This time, he qualified to the all-around in ninth place and also reached two apparatus finals — floor exercise and vault.”
Entering the Tokyo Summer Games as the prohibitive favorite in the floor exercise after capturing the gold in the 2019 world meet in Stuttgart, Germany, the pint-sized Pinoy athlete stumbled out of contention in his forte and finished sixth in the vault finals.
Now Yulo has two cracks at gold medals in events he has ruled at the worlds: the floor exercise and vault, which he topped months after his miserable maiden Olympic appearance in the Japanese city of Kitakyushu in 2021.
But he faces an uphill battle in the men’s individual all-around finals, with Chinese Zhang Boheng, the 2021 world all-around champion, topping the qualifiers with a massive 88.597 points.
Zhang finished comfortably ahead of two Japanese bets, Oka Shinnosuke and Hashimoto Daiki, the two-time world and defending Olympic men’s all-around champion, who were second and third with 86.865 and 85.064 points, respectively.
If he plays his cards right, Yulo’s best chance for gold lies in the floor exercise where he finished just .200 points behind top British qualifier Jake Jarman (14.966) and slightly ahead of No. 3 finisher Rayderley Zapata (14.600) of Spain.
Not to be counted out is reigning world and Olympic floor exercise champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel, the No. 7 qualifier with 14.666 points.
Yulo will have ample time to fine-tune his floor exercise routine and the vault, whose finals will be on Sunday.
Swinging into action yesterday in the women’s all-around qualifiers were the Filipino-American troika of Aleah Finnegan, Emma Malabuyo and Levi Ruivivar, who were in Subdivision 3 of five subdivisions starting at 2:50 p.m. (8:50 p.m. Manila time) with the balance beam.
The trio then move on to the floor exercise, vault and uneven bars, respectively.
