By Dion Mikhail Fetalvero

PHOTO: SPIN.ph

Doha, Qatar was the venue where Carlos Yulo cemented his name in history books, winning his first World Championships medal in 2018 – the first in Southeast Asia.

This time, his mission is to vault his way to a ticket to the World Championships in Liverpool; and so he did, Thursday, June 16.  

The Filipino gymnast displayed his brilliance in the qualification round of the Doha 9th Asian Senior Gymnastics tilt, bagging the silver medal in the men’s individual all-around to clinch a ticket back to the World Championships set for October.

Two-time world champion Yulo topped the vault (14.867), and floor exercise (14.800), to pave the way to a total of 83.767 for the six apparatuses.

Yulo narrowly missed gold medalist Shi Cong of China, by less than a tenth of a point, who ended his campaign with 83.333.

The Southeast Asian Games champion was leading in the competition’s halfway mark after clinching sixth place in the still rings and 20th in the pommel horse with two of his World Championships medalled events (vault and parallel bars) still to come.

However, the pressure is on for the Filipino gymnast as World Championships bronze medalist Shi, upped the ante and delivered his masterful performances into the limelight.

Despite settling for 16th place in the vault, the Chinese gymnast topped the horizontal bars with 14.133 and came second in the parallel bars with 14.867.

The Filipino gymnast, meanwhile, only scored 14.367 for the parallel bars and 12th in the horizontal bars with 12.700, slipping into the silver podium.

Shi’s teammate, Yang Jiaxing, earned the bronze medal with a 83.733 score.

The top five nations from the team all-around and the top six athletes who were not included in the qualifying teams were automatically given a spot to the prestigious meet.

Yulo will also vie for four more medals after qualifying in the apparatus finals of the vault, floor, parallel bars, and still rings events.

Meanwhile, Filipino teammate Juancho Besana also made it into the finals of the vault apparatus after placing eighth place in the qualification round.


Edited by Quian Vencel Galut