Japanese coach Tomoharu Sano was supposed to be the new coach of Paris Olympics-bound gymnast Carlos Yulo.
But a recent accident has kept the 68-year-old Sano from leaving Tokyo.
“Sano, he got injured. He cannot coach Caloy. He fell and broke his leg,” said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion-Norton, who is currently in Japan.
Instead, Yulo could end up having Yordan Yovchev, the president of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation, as his new mentor.
The 50-year-old Yovchev, who took part in six consecutive Olympic Games, has expressed his interest in handling the 23-year-old Yulo.
For now, a monthlong training camp in South Korea, will keep Yulo in shape for his stint in 2024 Paris Olympics.
Yulo has been in Seoul for the last two weeks with coach Aldrin Castaneda and his physical therapist Hazel Calawod to be with members of the Korean national team.
Training camps in Spain, the United Kingdom and Australia have also been mapped out for Yulo before he goes to Paris.
After the first camp, Yulo wil get ready to head to Baku, Azerbaijan, to see action in one of the legs of the 2024 Apparatus World Cup Series from March 3 to March 10.
Yulo parted ways last year with his former mentor Munehiro Kugimiya before the start of the Asian Games.
With Kugimiya gone, Yulo has stuck it out with Aldrin Castaneda, who has been coaching him before he went to Japan many years ago.
On the other hand, Yovchev was a decorated Bulgarian gymnast before he retired, having won silver in the men’s rings at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens with a score of 9.850 as among his achievements, to go with a bronze medal in the men’s floor exercise with a score of 9.775.
In the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Yovchev earned the bronze on both the floor exercise and still rings with 9.787 and 9.762, respectively.
Yovchev also distinguished himself when he won two World Championship Bronze medals in the all around in 1999 and 2001.