Yulo stamps class with 2 golds, 2 silvers at Pacific Rim

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – This early, could there already be a top Filipino gymnastics prospect for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games?

Gymnastics officials believe they have found one in Caloy Yulo,16, who ended his debut in the 8th Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships with a flourish on Monday, April 11 (Sunday, April 10 in the US). Yulo captured two golds and two silvers at the Xfinity Arena in Everett, Washington. 

In a huge follow-up to his bronze medal in the 2015 International Junior Gymnastics Competition in Tokyo, the 16-year-old prodigy topped his forte, the floor exercise, with a score of 14.8 points, narrowly relegating Japanese Ryosuke Doi to the silver (14.15) and Colombia’s Jose David Toro to the bronze (13.525). 

The Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) protégé also topped the vault, leading the field with a gold-medal winning score of 14.85 points. Chinese-Taipei’s Alan Shiao settled for the silver (14.40), while Japan’s Kanta Amano and Ryosuke Doi shared the bronze with similar scores of 14.150 points each. 

Unawed by the opposition composed of some of the best junior gymnasts in the Pacific Rim, Yulo also secured runner-up finishes in the rings (13.525) and parallel bars (13.65) behind two Japanese entries to close out his debut in the competition on a high note. 

An incoming Grade 10 student at Adamson University, Yulo wound up with a haul of 5 medals, counting the bronze medal he won in the juniors all-around last Saturday, April 9 (Friday, April 8 in the US).

2015 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Reyland Capellan, however, was not as fruitful. He bowed to superior opposition, including the US men’s squad tuning up for the Rio Olympics, in the seniors division. Capellan finished 7th in both the floor exercise and vault finals.

“It was amazing, he [Yulo] was like a celebrity [here],” said GAP president Cynthia Carrion, who was the head of the Philippine delegation, in a Facebook post. “Everybody wanted to take photos with him as well as his autograph.”

“We are so very proud of him, our bet for the 2020 [Tokyo] Olympics,” also said GAP secretary general Bettina Pou in a text message to Rappler. 

Pou bared that the association is trying to secure a P500,000 subsidy from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) so Yulo can train in Japan as part of his buildup for the Tokyo Olympics.

“I am in touch with [PSC] Commissioner Akiko Thomson Guevarra, who said that she would assist us in getting the support,” Pou said. – Rappler.com

Editor’s Note: This story mistakenly stated that Caloy Yulo’s score for the floor exercise is 14.150 points and that Japanese Ryosuke Doi had a score of 14.125. This has been corrected to 14.8 and 14.15 points, respectively. We regret the error.