FOR the first time in five straight appearances in the elite competition, Carlos Edriel Yulo won’t be bringing home any medal from the 52nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the Sportspaleis in Antwerp, Belgium.
After a dismal outing in the individual men’s all-around qualifiers last other week, Yulo narrowly missed a podium finish in the men’s floor exercise last Saturday afternoon (Saturday night in Manila), scoring 14.500 points to place fourth in his forte.
The pint-sized Pinoy was just .10 of a point behind bronze medalist Milad Karimi (14.600) of Kazakhstan while Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Artem Dolgopyat of Israel (14.866) and Japan’s Minami Kazuki (14.666) took the gold and silver, respectively.
Without regular Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya by his side for the first time at the worlds, Yulo suffered bad falls in the rings and vault, respectively, winding up 59th and last in the all-around qualifiers with a score of 67.765 points.
Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion, however, said that she was assured by technical officials in Antwerp that Yulo had secured a ticket to the Paris Olympics next year after placing third in the floor exercise of the qualifiers.
Whether Yulo has indeed punched a ticket to Paris will be confirmed by the world government body, known by its French acronym FIG, after the climax of the world meet that was scheduled to end last night at the 18,000-seat Belgian arena.
It marked the first time that Yulo failed to win a medal since making his debut in the world meet in the 2018 edition in Doha, Qatar where he took a bronze medal in the floor exercise with Kugimiya beside him, kicking off their successful partnership.
A year later, Kugimiya was with Yulo anew as won the country’s historic first gold in the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships by ruling the floor exercise with an outstanding display of athleticism and grace en route to a top score of 15.300 points.
Kugimiya was also there when Yulo emerged as the country’s most outstanding performer in the 2019 Philippine Southeast Asian Games, romping off with two gold and five silver medals at the heritage-rich Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Yulo had a forgettable outing in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, which was later blamed to an injury just before the Summer Games in the Japanese capital, with Kugimiya accepting the blame for the performance.
Yulo, however, achieved redemption months later, roaring back to top the men’s vault and garner a silver in the parallel bars in the seaport Japanese city of Kitakyushu.
The Japanese mentor also had a huge hand in Yulo dominating the 31st Vietnam SEA Games with five golds and two silvers, three golds and two silvers in the subsequent Asian meet in Doha, Qatar before capping 2022 with a silver and a bronze in the vault and parallel bars, respectively, at the worlds in Liverpool, England.
