MANILA, Philippines – Carlos Yulo has come a long way from missing the men’s artistic gymnastics all-around final in the last Olympics to making the top 12 in the Paris Games.
Yulo finished 12th out of 24 qualifiers in the all-around final at the Bercy Arena on Wednesday, July 31 (Thursday, August 1, Manila time), building up much-needed confidence for his two remaining chances at a coveted medal.
Overcoming an early blunder, the reigning Asian all-around champion totaled 83.032 points as he shone in his pet events floor exercise and vault – apparatuses where he is also a finalist.
Yulo netted his highest score in vault with 14.766 points, then garnered 14.500 points in parallel bars and 14.333 points in floor exercise to bounce back from an inauspicious start that saw him fall during his pommel horse routine.
The 24-year-old Filipino standout started the event at last place after he fell near the end of his pommel horse routine, a mistake that earned him just 11.900 points. He stayed at the bottom despite getting 13.933 points in still rings.
But Yulo slowly climbed the standings starting with his stellar showing in vault, where he tied for the third-highest score.
He followed it up with a steady execution in parallel bars and horizontal bar, where he posted 13.600 points, before he closed out the rotation in floor exercise.
While Yulo missed out on a medal, he showed massive improvement in his Olympic return three years after finishing the all-around qualification in the Tokyo Games at 47th place.
There, he amassed 79.931 points and made only the vault final.
Shinnosuke Oka struck gold with 86.832 points as Japan dominated the men’s all-around competitions after also capturing the crown in the team event.
China’s Zhang Boheng (86.599) and Xiao Ruoteng (86.364) went second and third, respectively, following a tense ending that saw Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun (86.165) bumped off the podium.
With all but Zhang completing their rotations, Kovtun held the third spot only to witness the Chinese – who topped the qualification – nail the highest mark in horizontal bar to deny the Ukrainian his first Olympic medal.
Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto failed to defend his throne after placing sixth with 84.598 points, wrapping up his Olympic campaign with no individual medals as he also stumbled in his title repeat bid in horizontal bar.
Yulo returns to action in the floor exercise and vault finals on August 3 and 4, respectively. – Rappler.com