NATIONAL coach Reyland Capellan and gymnasts Juan Miguel Besana and Karl Eldrew Yulo left over the weekend for Tokyo, Japan to train with gymnastics ace Carlos Edriel Yulo for two major international competitions in Singapore next month.
Capellan, who coached the national men’s squad that copped four gold and two silver medals in the 32nd Cambodia Southeast Asian Games, will join the elder Yulo and Japanese head Munehiro Kugimiya to fine tune the skills of both athletes.
Karl Eldrew, 17, is set to see action in the 16th Asian Junior Artistic Championships on July 10 to 13 while Besana, who copped the men’s vault gold in Cambodia, will be part of the national team that will compete in the 10th Asian Senior Artistic Gymnastics Championships from July 10 to 18.
Both meets will be held at the sprawling OCBC Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub.
The younger Yulo will try to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious older brother, who emerged anew as the country’s most bemedalled athlete in the regional meet for the third straight time with a pair of mints and silvers in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
It was at the same Asian junior tournament that the older Yulo first drew international attention when he captured the men’s parallel bars gold medal in the 2017 edition in Bangkok, Thailand despite an injury.
With greater international experience, Besana, 22, hopes to show improvement as he hopes to join Yulo to the next world championships in Antwerp, Belgium in September. To do that, he needs to finish in the top eight all-around gymnasts in Singapore.
Yulo, 23, seeking his fourth straight stint in the World, is out to match if not surpass his previous performance in the Asian meet last year in Doha, Qatar where he bagged three golds and one silver medal.
The diminutive former two-time world champion ruled the men’s floor exercise, vault and parallel bars events while placing a close second behind China’s Shi Cong in the men’s individual all-around tilt.
Before leaving for the Japanese capital, Capellan said he and Kugimiya are keen on assembling a competitive national men’s squad that would gun for at least a fifth-place finish in the team event in the Asian meet, good enough for a spot in the World championships.
