FILIPINO gymnast Carlos Yulo reached the finals of two events, while Emma Malabuyo missed her target but still remained in contention for an Olympic qualification spot on Thursday night in the fourth and final leg of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series in Doha, Qatar.
The 24-year-old Yulo joined three other rivals, Uzbekistan’s Milad Karimi and Rasulijon Abdurakhimov, together with Yuan-Hsi Hung of Taipei in the main draw of the men’s parallel bars.
Yulo also made it to the vault finals, with Armenia’s veteran gymnast Artur Davtyan, a bronze medallist in the Tokyo Olympics, in the lead.
Meanwhile, the 21-year-old Malabuyo stayed hopeful for a slot to the Paris Olympics with her high ranking scores after the first three other legs as she tallied 12.533 for 10th place, missing the finals by a fraction of a point in the women’s floor exercises.
Their fortunes became known a day after Lee Jung-Ruivivar barged into women’s uneven bars finals on Wednesday.
Malabuyo’s high execution score of 7.933 was not enough for her to advance, after her rival, Italy’s Chiara Barzasi scored high in the difficulty level, and got qualified with her 12.733 tally.
“Not like we hoped for, missed making the finals by 0.2. Now we have to wait to see how the finals plays out, if the athlete that was trailing Emma doesn’t finish in the top two at finals, Emma will win the spot. So we have to wait until Saturday for the outcome,” said Malabuyo’s coach Cliff Parks in an interview with the Manila Standard.
Yulo, now coached by Aldrin Castaneda, landed second behind Abdurakhimov with 14.633 points, off an 8.633 in execution to go with six points in difficulty in the parallel bars.
Abdurakhimov, who is among those tipped to get a podium finish here, was in front of Yulo with 14.9 points.
Davtyan’s perfect landings during his turns on the floor saw him gain 15.116 points, with Yulo trailing with 14.966.
“I want to test myself in these competitions. I want to make some mistakes so I would know what and where to adjust ahead of the Olympics,” said Yulo, who will be in two more international meets—in Qatar and Uzbekistan in May, before he heads for Paris in June for a pre-Olympic training camp.
