MANILA, Philippines – Here comes Caloy Yulo again.
Better prepared this time, the 22-year-old Filipino delivered an impressive performance in the qualifying round of his pet floor exercise to earn a shot at the gold medal in the Doha, Qatar leg of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series Wednesday.
The diminutive but big-hearted dynamo from Leveriza, Manila was at his best again as he came through with a total of 14.500 on 8.000 off execution and a 6.5 degree of difficulty.
Israeli Artem Dolgopyat, the reigning Olympic and world champion who topped floor exercise of the kickoff stage in Cottbus, Germany a few days back, barely edged Yulo after garnering 14.600 (8.200 execution, 6.4 difficulty).
The two rivals would go at it again in the finals set Friday night in another showdown that is expected the draw epic performances from each other reminiscent of their past duels.
Yulo had the better of Dolgopyat when they first met in 2019 in Stuttgart, Germany where the former claimed his first world championship mint.
But since then, it was Dolgopyat who got the better of Yulo with emphatic conquests in the 2021 Tokyo Games and in Cottbus.
“For finals on Friday, please pray him (Yulo) to make gold,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion Norton summoned the country. “Dolgopyat is the Olympic champion. But hopefully Caloy will do better than him (Dolgopyat) to get the gold.”
The recent effort was in stark contrast to Yulo’s forgettable performance in the same event in Cottbus where he wound up at 20th spot with a 13.400.
Yulo did not make the cut in the rings after he wound up at 11th with a 14.166.
It was also an improvement from Cottbus where he was 13th with a 13.833.
Meanwhile, Yulo’s countryman, Juancho Miguel Besana finished at 23rd in floor exercise with a 12.733.
Yulo is also entered in parallel bars and vault at press time.
Yulo's downfall last time was reportedly due to little preparation after spending two weeks in the Philippines for a brief vacation before plunging back into action as he prepares for next year's Paris Olympics.
Good thing Yulo has started to regain his rhythm.