Paris Olympics-bound Carlos Yulo will test the quality of the field in the Baku leg of the 2024 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series this weekend in Azerbaijan.
And while Yulo is already assured of a berth in the Paris games, his teammates, two Filipino-American standouts in Emma Malabuyo and Lee Jung-Ruvivar will aim for points to boost their bids of making it to the Olympics.
Yulo, coming out of a series of training camps that started in South Korea, will be in the third segment of a four-leg qualifier for the quadrennial meet.
The 24-year-old Yulo, who already clinched a seat in the Paris Games with Fil-American Aleah Finnegan as early as last year, will just try to find out what shape he is in, after parting ways with former coach Munehiro Kugimiya.
Yulo will be in the company of gymnastics stars from the People’s Republic of China, which sent a strong team that includes Olympic parallel bars champion Zou Jingyuan and 2015 world champion You Hao in the mix.
All three will seek to challenge Ukrainian star Illia Kovtun’s dominance.
As for Malabuyo and Ruvivar they will try to be in the company of Finnegan, a former member of Team USA like Malabuyo.
At the World Championships last year, Finnegan finished 32nd in the all-around, qualifying her for the 2024 Summer Olympics as an individual and making her the first Filipina female gymnast to reach the quadrennial since 1964.
While in the Cottbus leg two weeks ago, the Mountainview, California-born Malabuyo got 14 Olympic qualification points from her effort after scoring 12.6 points during the preliminaries in the women’s floor exercises.
Malabuyo, who is a five-time member of the US National Team before switching federations after the Tokyo Olympics, dropped from no. 1 during the Cairo stop to no. 2 in the Olympic qualification rankings when she left Germany to prepare for the Baku meet.
Amassing a total of 44 points, Malabuyo is now behind Charlize Moerz of Austria, who owns the no. 1 position with 50 points, after snatching for the country the bronze medal in Cottbus.
The 17-year-old Ruvivar, an incoming student-athlete at Stanford University, settled for 12th in the uneven bars prelims with 13.33 points and missed the finals.
This gave the Los Angeles, California-born Ruvivar 12 points to stay at no. 6 in the 2024 Apparatus World Cup’s Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Reallocated Points Rankings of the International Gymnastics Federation.
“I’m very determined. No matter how I score at the next two meets, I have to say I am proud and honored to be representing the Philippines on the international stage. There are so many talented gymnasts at these competitions and I am enjoying gaining the experience and also look forward to a long future of elite gymnastics,” said Ruvivar in an interview with the Manila Standard.
