The road to having the Yulo siblings play together in Olympics gymnastics started on the right foot in Bangkok, Thailand.
Karl and Elaiza Yulo, younger brother and sister, respectively, of world champion Caloy Yulo, churned out impressive performances in their first overseas competition in the ongoing 2022 JRC Artistic Gymnastics Stars Championships.
Elaiza, the youngest among the three Yulo gymnastics’ athletes, bagged the women’s individual all-around on opening day and then dominated the vault and uneven bars on Friday for a three-gold medal haul.
After settling for silver in the men’s individual all-around category on opening day Thursday, the 14-year-old Karl captured the gold in the floor exercise and took the silver in the pommel horse and bronze in the still rings’ event of the five-nation tournament hosted by the Gymnastics Association of Thailand.
Participants represented 26 clubs from the country of Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and host Thailand.
“Congratulations to these amazing persons who never failed me. First time to compete as a junior and after two years of waiting because of the pandemic, we had limited training because of the restrictions due to COVID-19 and yet you never gave up and it paid off,” said the siblings’ mother, Angelika, who provided the information on her social media page.
“Thank you to our Almighty God for giving me, such wonderful kids. You made me proud,” she added.
Karl is a multi-medalist in national competitions like the Batang Pinoy national games organized yearly by the Philippine Sports Commission. He has always said that he will join his elder brother on the national team and hopefully compete with him together in the Olympics.
Tokyo Olympics’s veteran Caloy bagged a silver and a bronze in the 51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships two weeks ago in Liverpool, England.