Yulo world tilt bound

Champ is doing good in Asian meet

MANILA, Philippines — Carlos Yulo flexed his champion muscles and zoomed to second place in the provisional rankings in the individual all-around qualification phase of the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Singapore last night.

The diminutive juggernaut from Leveriza in Manila amassed 85.93 including a spectacular 15.066 in parallel bars and 14.966 in floor exercise.

The pair of scintillating efforts put one of Yulo’s feet into making the finals this weekend and claim a spot to the World Championships slated Sept. 30 to Oct. 8 in Antwerp, Belgium.

With the third and last subdivision still being played at press time, Yulo appeared on track as he was at No. 2 behind reigning world junior champion Shinnosuke Oka of Japan, who had 86.065, with a legitimate shot at claiming one of the eight spots in the finals.

The Phnom Penh Southeast Asian Games double-gold winner was also impressive in vault where he posted a two-attempt average of 14.833 and scored 14.300 in still rings, 13.466 in high bar and 13.266 in pommel horse.

For the team event, Yulo joined forces with Juancho Besana, John Ivan Cruz, Justin Ace de Leon and Jann Gwynn Timbang as they stood at second with 237.193 behind Chinese Taipei with 238.226 after the first subdivision.

But the country fell to fifth after China, Japan and Uzbekistan emerged from the second subdivision to take the first three places with scores of 256.762, 256.694 and 244.559, respectively.