JAPANESE coach Kugimiya Munehiro said Filipino ace gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo has blossomed into an all-around performer, further boosting his chances to win multiple medals in the World Championships, and possibly in the Olympics.
“He is getting progress as (an) all-rounder,” said Munehiro in describing his Filipino ward’s performance in the qualifying round of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship in Liverpool, England late Monday night.
Relying heavily on his top-notch performance in his pet floor exercise event, the 22-year-old Manileno qualified in four of six events in the medal round that will start on Nov. 5 (PH time).
“We will try our best in the finals,” added the Japanese mentor, who molded Yulo into a world-class athlete.
Yulo dominated the medal rounds of the all-around exercise, floor exercise, vault and parallel bars. He topped the floor exercise with a score of 15. 266, was second in the vault (14.849) and fourth in parallel bars (15.3). They were enough to put him at third place in the all-around behind Japanese Wataru Tanigawa, who toscored with 84.731 points and Daiki Hashimoto (84.665).
He placed 10th in the rings (914.066), 31st in the horizontal bar and 102nd in the pommel horse (11.766).
Yulo was in his best shape at the floor – as what he showed during practice—as he got the approval of the judges with the best score in both difficulty (6.4 points) and execution (8.866). It was in the floor exercise where Yulo won his first world title in Stuttgart, Germany three years ago.
The all-round finals take place on Friday (Saturday PH time), with Yulo vying against 23 other competitors. He will return to the floor for the medal round on Saturday and the vault and parallel bars on Sunday. Yulo is looking for a back-to-back gold medal finish in the vault, which he topped last year in the World Championship held at Kitakyushu, Japan.