TOP gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo can still emerge as the country’s most bemedalled athlete in the 32nd Cambodia Southeast Asian Games in May based on the new information on the sport obtained by national coach Reyland Capellan.
“While we thought at first that our athletes can only compete in two events — the men’s individual all-around and team — it turns out that our athletes can pick two more depending on how they place in their individual all-around standings, based on the details from the technical handbook,” said Capellan.
“For example, Carlos can pick two events or apparatus so that he can also compete for more golds based on his individual all-around standings,” added Capellan, who has been tasked by Japanese head coach Munehiro Kugimiya to handle the national men’s team for the Cambodia Games.
Yulo was the most dominant Filipino athlete in the 31st Vietnam Games last year, romping off with five gold and two silver medals.
He is expected to do so again in the Cambodia edition set May 5 to 17 in the capital of Phnom Penh and the north western city of Siem Reap.
A back-to-back men’s floor champion in the 2015 Singapore and 2017 Malaysia SEA Games, Capellan said that tipped to join Yulo were John Ivan Cruz, Juancho Miguel Besana, Justine Ace De Leon, Jan Gwynn Timbang and John Matthew Vergara, who were members of the team that bagged a silver in Hanoi.
“As much as possible we would like to win as many golds as we can in Cambodia kaya nag-eensayo ng mabuti ang mga bata,” Capellan said.
Yulo, who arrived last week fresh from his successful stint in the fourth leg of the FIG World Cup series in Baku, Azerbaijan where he took the mints in the men’s vault and parallel bars, will be around until March 26 to establish better esprit de corps with his teammates before they see action together in Cambodia.
Kugimiya said his prized ward will resume training in Tokyo before they head to the last leg of the World Cup series from April 27 to 30 in Cairo, Egypt.
He added that they will head together from the Japanese capital for the Cambodia Games, which will have its artistic gymnastics event from May 6 to 9.
Kugimiya said the diminutive dynamo will then see action in the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, a qualifying competition for the World Gymnastics Championships, scheduled June 10 to 18 in Singapore.
Schedule permitting, Yulo, who is pursuing a sports science degree at Teikyo University in Tokyo, is also penciled to compete in the FISU World University Summer Games se July 28 to Aug. 8 in Chengdu, China.
