JAKARTA, Indonesia – Hopes ran high when Carlos Edriel Yulo placed first in the men’s floor exercise qualifiers of the 2018 Asian Games men’s artistic gymnastics. But all that got dashed when he surprisingly crashed to seventh place in the final round.

The 18-year-old, though, quickly moved on from his lackluster performance and revealed that he had already set his sights on other competitions. 

“Hindi naman po ganoon ka-disappointed, pero ‘di naman po ito ‘yung target ko na competition lang po, marami pa po naman. Doon na lang po ako babawi or kaya next na Asian Games po,” said Yulo. 

(I’m not that disappointed, but this isn’t just my target competition, there are more out there. I’ll just make up for my blunder in other events or in the next Asian Games.) 

Yulo scored 14.5 to top the qualifiers last Monday, fanning expectations that a first gold medal in artistic gymnastics may be coming the Philippines’ way.

But the 4-foot-11 gymnast stumbled in his final performance and got penalized with a heavy one-point deduction in the medal round on Thursday, August 23.

Although it looked like that pressure or nervousness did him in, Yulo said he just plainly made a mistake.  

“Sa third pass ko po, hindi ko po kasi nakita ‘yung floor eh, so hindi ko po alam ‘yung gagawin ko, so natumba po ako,” explained the Doha World Cup silver medalist.

(I didn’t see the floor in my third pass, I didn’t know what to do so I fell.) 

Yulo, though, gets another shot at a medal when he competes in the men’s vault final – where he placed fourth in the qualifiers – on Friday, August 24. 

But whether or not Yulo, who’s just on his first year in the national senior squad, goes home with a medal, there’s definitely a lot more that he can bring to the table. – Rappler.com