MANILA, Philippines – Carlos Yulo, who secured a 2020 Tokyo Olympics berth, landed at 10th place in the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships men’s individual all-around event on Friday, October 11, in Stuttgart, Germany.

Yulo scored 84.048 in the men’s individual all-around final, improving from his 18th place finish in the eliminations last Tuesday, October 8. 

“First time ko pong maka-iskor ng 84+ kaya talagang mataas po iyon,” said Yulo after scoring his personal best.  

“‘Di po katulad last Monday na kabado po ako. Sabi ni coach Mune (Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya) huwag ako matakot magkamali and enjoy. Pero nag-ingat din po ako na di malaglag.”

(It’s my first time to score 84+ so that’s really high. I wasn’t nervous unlike last Monday. Coach Munehiro Kugimiya just told me not to get scared when I make a mistake and to enjoy. But I also made sure to be careful not to fall.)

Nikita Nagornyy scored 88.772 points to dethrone fellow Russian and last edition’s champion Artur Dalaloyan (87.165) for the all-around gold, while Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaev (86.973) settled for bronze in front of an animated crowd of 14,000 at the 15,000-seat arena.

“The performance of Caloy (Yulo’s nickname) is really outstanding considering that those in the top 10 are Russians, Chinese, Japanese and Americans, who are the best in gymnastics,” said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.

The Tokyo-based Filipino will be aiming for a return to the podium in the men’s floor final, where he won a historic world championships bronze for the Philippines, on Saturday, October 12, at 10 pm, Manila time. 

The teen gymnast cracked into the biggest sporting quadrennial meet even as he fell out of the world championships’ top 12 in the individual all-around since the Olympic cut excluded countries which already qualified prior to the event.

Yulo became the second local athlete after pole vaulter EJ Obiena to qualify for next year’s Olympics slated July 24 to August 9 in Tokyo, Japan. – Rappler.com