MANILA, Philippines — Filipino dynamo Caloy Yulo is taking the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series by storm.
Like poetry in motion, Yulo executed his routine flawlessly in capturing the gold medal in parallel bars yesterday in the Baku, Azerbaijan leg, hiking his total in the star-studded series to two mints, one silver and a bronze.
The 22-year-old pocket-sized spectacle from Leveriza in Manila electrified the crowd with a magnificent 15.400 score from 8.900 in execution and 6.5 in degree of difficulty.
The quintuple Hanoi Southeast Asian Games gold winner blew away the competition that included talented 19-year-old Ukrainian Illia Kovtun, who settled for the silver with a 15.366 after topping the first two legs in Cottbus, Germany and Doha, Qatar more than a week ago.
France’s Cameron-Lie Bernard snatched the bronze with a 14.600.
Yulo was nothing less than magical in the execution of his routine – clear hip to one rail handstand, Healy out, Stutz, Healy, front flip, front straddle somie to his hands, Bhavsar, Tippelt, Diamidov, double front tuck half out and stuck.
That feat finally ended Yulo’s two defeats to Kovtun in Cottbus and Doha where the Filipino settled for bronze and silver, respectively.
Kovtun was actually the favorite in Baku. But on this day, Yulo showed Kovtun who’s the boss.
Yulo, whose other gold came in the floor exercise in the Doha leg, wound up seventh with a 14.166 in the rings topped by Azerbaijan’s Nikita Simonov (14.633).
He is expected to see action in the final stop of the series in Cairo, Egypt on April 27 to 30.
Yulo is using the series as part of his preparation for the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium in September as he tries to secure a spot to next year’s Paris Olympics.
In the French capital, Yulo will gun for the one hardware missing in his mammoth collection – the Olympic gold.