Filipino Carlos Yulo failed to make it to the podium of the men’s all-around event yesterday after finishing eighth out of 24 finalists in the 51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Liverpool, England.
Yulo earned 82.096 points, way behind the gold medal-winning 87.198 of Tokyo Olympics champion Daiki Hashimoto, who relegated defending champion Zhang Boheng of China for runner-up honors with a 86.765 effort.
Still, the eight-place finish was better than two years ago in Stuttgart, Germany, where Yulo placed tenth.
“Today was a really good experience for me. Mistakes are mistakes and it came from practices so we really have to fix those mistakes,” Yulo said in an interview with GymCastic.
“I’m just speechless. I’m kinda disappointed but it gave me the confidence to move up to another level,” the 22-year-old from Leveriza, Manila, said.
Yulo got big numbers in the floor (15.166 points) and parallel bars (15.166) but his record in the pommel horse (11.9) and horizontal bars (13.8) extinguished anyhopes for a top three finish.
Yulo then added his performances in the vault (14.166 points) and still rings (13.866 points) to complete the tally.
Munehiro Kugimiya, Yulo’s head coach, believes the best has yet to come for his pupil with three more finals left for him to compete.
He also thanked the Filipinos in Liverpool who came out to support the multiple Southeast Asian Games gold medalist and two-time world championships gold medalist.
“Awarded for the first time in an all-around final! But still not in his best performance yet,” Kugimiya posted on his social media page.
“Thank you to our Pinoy friends for coming to cheer us on. Tomorrow floor final muna.”
Another Japanese entry, Wataru Tanigawa, picked up the bronze with 85.231 points.
At press time, Yulo is competing in the floor exercise in hopes of reclaiming the gold medal he won in 2019.
The vault and parallel bars are set on Monday (Manila time).
