OLYMPIAN and world champion Carlos Yulo, the country’s top gymnast, will start training under his new coach this January.
That’s when Japanese mentor Tomoharu Sano returns to the country to personally oversee Yulo’s preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
For now, Yulo is taking it easy and resting during the holiday season from a sprained ankle, which he sustained while training on his own at the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines elite facility in Intramuros, Manila.
“I want to move on,” said Yulo, who went separate ways with Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya, his trainer for seven years while in Tokyo.
The 23-year-old Yulo trained and competed with his former coach Aldrin Castaneda in his first major tournament without Kugimiya and missed the all-around final in the World Artistics Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, after he landed flat on his back twice.
But Yulo still grabbed a ticket to Paris Olympics when he became the highest-ranked eligible participant in the floor exercise.
He did not return to Japan afterwards and Yulo has since worked out at the Intramuros gym in Manila.
Filipino-American gymnast Aleah Finnegan had also qualified for the Paris Olympics, where he be joined by Yulo, Asia’s no. 1 pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena and Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Marcial.
Early this year, Yulo bagged gold medals in the parallel bars, floor exercise and vault, along with a silver and a bronze at the Asian championships in Singapore last June.
Yulo also claimed two golds and two silvers at the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games last May.
Under Kugimiya’s watch, Yulo has earned a total 17 gold medals in the seven years that he trained under the Japanese coach since 2016.
Sano, who is coming back to Manila in mid-January, used to be a member of the Japanese national team.
The 68-year-old Sano met with Gymnastics Association of the Philippines chief Cynthia Carrion and gymnastics officials when he briefly visited the country last October.