MANILA, Philippines — For the second straight World Championships, Caloy Yulo succumbed to pressure in the event he was favored to dominate – the floor exercise.
In a heartbreaking performance that was in stark contrast to his master class effort during the qualifier, Yulo stumbled, fumbled and finished a painful seventh in floor exercise final in the 51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Liverpool, England.
From a magnificent 15.266 during the qualifying round and a 15.166 in the first rotation of the individual all-around final, Yulo cracked under gnawing pressure and managed just 13.300 that sent him to a disappointing seventh.
Giaarnni Regini-Moran snatched the gold from nowhere with a 14.533 while individual all-around winner Daiki Hashimoto of Japan and another Japanese Ryosuek Doi took the silver and bronze with 14.500 and 14.266, respectively.
But it could have been Yulo had the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games quintuple gold winner replicated his spectacular 15-plus effort.
It was a virtual repeat of his fifth-place effort a year ago in Kitakyushu, Japan also with a catastrophic landing.
But it was worse in Liverpool.
“I am really disappointed, obviously,” said the pocket-sized dynamo from Leveriza, Manila. “Yesterday (Friday) was okay, I hit it. But today (yesterday) I had a feeling that I lost myself.”
The beginning of the end came in the early routine when he couldn’t muster the same energy he had in the qualifiers.
“I didn’t kick like I did in practice. It was a bit too soft. I felt I couldn’t make it, but I tried to correct in on the landing. It was affected by my first tumble, and then it is like a chain, you can’t stop it,” said Yulo.
Yulo, however, is still in contention in vault and in parallel bars.