Yulo on target in four events

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino dynamo Caloy Yulo was on target and a joy to watch in the qualifying round of the 51st World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, England.

Ranged against the best and brightest the sport could offer, the pocket-sized wonder from Leveriza, Manila shone in magnificence, advancing to the finals of floor exercise, vault, parallel bars and the individual all-around.

“It’s a really good result but it’s just the qualifying. I’m not being boastful, it’s not the final yet so if I can do it in the final, maybe I will say I’m satisfied,” said Yulo.

The quintuple Southeast Asian Games gold winner was nothing less than electric in the floor exercise, his favorite event, where he blew away the competition with a breathtaking score of 15.266 — the only score that breached the 15-point plateau.

Yulo was second in vault (14.849), fourth in parallel bars (15.300) and a pleasantly surprising third in the individual all-around (84.644) where he also earned a chance to medal.

He had an awkward start after an 11.666 in pommel horse, landing him at 102nd place, then he had a 13.533 (31st) in high bar and 14.066 (10th) in still rings, good enough to propel him to the first group of the individual all-around for the first time.

Only the Japanese duo of Watary Tanigawa (84.731) and Tokyo Olympic champion Daisuke Hashimoto (84.665) were better.

And Yulo hopes for a shocker of shockers, aiming to pull the rug from under the two titans of the sport.

“Of course, I would like to beat them. This is the first time I’m going to be in the first group and it is a big, big achievement for me,” he said.

It was in the floor exercise where Yulo performed his routine – 2.5 twist to front double pike, double layout, double full out, front layout to Randi, triple full side pass, 1.5 to front double full, and a 3.5 twist – to near perfection.

And there is hope Yulo could replicate his golden effort in Stuttgart, Germany in 2019 and bury the ghost of his painful past a year ago when he had a catastrophic fifth-place finish in Kitakyushu.

“I’m going to try to beat what I did (yesterday), and to be more aggressive,” said Yulo.