Carlos Yulo mesmerizes in Doha

MANILA, Philippines — It was a grand slam of sorts for two-time Palarong Pambansa champion Caloy Yulo as he went to the podium thrice in the last three legs of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Individual Apparatus Artistic World Cup series to mark his ascent to the senior level with a resounding bang.

Yulo qualified for the eight-leg 2016-18 World Cup series only after turning 18 last Feb. 16 and competed in the final three stages in Melbourne last Feb. 22-25, Baku last March 13-18 and Doha this weekend. He bagged the bronze in vault in Melbourne, silver in vault in Baku and silver in floor in Doha. Yulo was in contention for another medal in the vault final in Doha at presstime.

The silver in Doha was particularly impressive. He took sixth place in the 41-man qualifiers where only the top eight advanced to the floor exercise final. Japan’s Takumi Sato led the qualifiers with 14.866 points while Yulo scored 14.1. But in the final, Yulo tallied 14.433 to finish second only to Russia’s Dmitrii Lankin with 14.733. In third place was Japan’s Ryohei Kato who won a gold in the team all-around event at the 2016 Rio Olympics. There were 25 countries represented in the floor competitions. Another Filipino Matthew Vergara wound up No. 40 with 11.133 points. Yulo also competed in the pommel horse and vault. He missed the pommel horse cut-off by one rung but made it to the top eight of the vault. 

Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion described Yulo’s three consecutive podium landings as phenomenal considering he started to campaign as a senior only last month.  “It’s a real feat,” she said. “Caloy has always been competing at the junior level. Now, he’s up against very polished senior gymnasts. Senior skills are higher and more difficult. To win medals in three straight World Cup competitions in four weeks was amazing.”

Carrion said Yulo’s showing in Doha was impactful because the Qatar capital is the home of the Asian Gymnastics Union. Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia were other Southeast Asian countries that participated but none of their gymnasts made it to the top 20 in the floor exercise. Carrion said as soon as Yulo bagged the silver, she immediately got a call of congratulations from the Asian body where she is the vice president of the executive board.

“I’m inspired to send him to all the World Cups,” she said, noting that the next series starts in Cottbus, Germany, on Nov. 22-25. “It’s not in the plan but we’ll need to see the timing. For now, he’ll go back to Japan to continue training for the Asian Games. For sure, we’ll prepare Caloy for the 2020 Olympics. I’d like to thank the MVP Sports Foundation for sponsoring and believing in Caloy.” Yulo has been based in Tokyo the last 2 1/2 years, training 6 to 8 hours a day, six days a week under Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya. He comes from a poor family in Leveriza. Carrion has arranged for Yulo’s 7-year-old sister to train as a scholar gymnast at the British School and his 10-year-old brother Eldrew, a Palarong Pambansa gold medalist last year, to work under national gymnast Reynald Capellan.

Carrion said FIG president Morinari Watanabe has assured her that Yulo will be the only foreigner chosen to train with Japan’s Olympic gymnasts in Tokyo. Yulo and national gymnasts Kaitlin De Guzman are among 30 athletes selected for focused assistance by the Siklab Atleta Pilipinas Sports Foundation. “The FIG has 163 member countries and fortunately, Mr. Watanabe is a personal friend who has allowed Caloy to train in the Japanese training center with the best athletes,” she said. “Caloy has improved a lot and is now beating gymnasts from Japan and China. If he continues training in Japan, his chances of winning a gold medal in the Olympics will only get better.”