MANILA, Philippines – An all-around top three is the target for Carlos Yulo in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in the coming years after gaining valuable lessons from his eighth-place finish in Liverpool, England.

Yulo admitted he got overwhelmed by the competition as he got bunched with the top contenders in the first group after landing at third in the qualification.

The reigning SEA Games titleholder competed in the finals alongside defending world champion Zhang Boheng of China and top qualifiers Daiki Hashimoto and Wataru Tanigawa of Japan, who all went on to win medals.

Hashimoto – the defending Olympic all-around titlist – dethroned Zhang by less than half a point, while Tanigawa secured bronze.

“When I came here, I was really prepared. But when I saw them, [when I was] with them, I [thought I was] not really ready yet,” Yulo told GymCastic after the finals on Friday, November 4 (Saturday, November 5, Manila time).

“It is a different stage,” he added. “[W]hen you’re in the first group, it is like all eyes [are] on you and my group was like everything was on fire.”

Yulo topped the floor exercise and parallel bars with identical marks of 15.166, but a pair of 11.9 on the pommel horse and horizontal bar dragged his score as he totaled 82.098, a full 3 points behind Tanigawa (85.231) for bronze.

The 22-year-old gymnast earned 14.166 on the vault and 13.8 on the still rings.

Hashimoto proved to be on another level, racking up 87.198 as Zhang fell short of back-to-back all-around titles in the world championships with 86.765.

“The aura was different and I can say I can do more. I can upgrade myself. I’m really thankful that I saw that, I felt that, and I experienced that,” said Yulo.

“Definitely, next year, or next, next year, I’ll be on the top three.”

Once Yulo wraps up his world championships stint in Liverpool, the next course of action for the pint-sized dynamo is to fine-tune his performances on the pommel horse and horizontal bar, his two weakest events.

He finished third to last on the horizontal bar and tallied the sixth-lowest score on the pommel horse.

“Today was a really good experience for me. Mistakes are mistakes,” said Yulo.

“[I’m] disappointed, but at the same time, it gave me confidence to move to another level.” – Rappler.com