Jakarta—Carlos Yulo blew his no. 1 rank with a difficult, mistake-laden routine as he bombed out of medal contention in the Floor Exercises of the Gymnastics’ event in the 2018 Asian Games at the Jakarta International Expo here on Thursday.
“Nagkamali po,” was all the shy World Cup silver medalist could say after his performance ranked seventh overall out of eight finalists.
Entering the medal round with a best score of 14.500, Yulo failed to sustain his fine form in his routine Monday and erred with his execution to finish with a score of 13.500, with a difficulty rating of 6.100 and an execution score of 7.400.
The Philippine delegation and the national federation had high hopes on Yulo, who in the Doha World Cup early this year, was able to beat Japanese Ryohei Kato, a gold medalist during the 2016 Rio Olympics. Kato placed third in Qatar.
“That was a very difficult routine,” said Gymnastics’ Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carreon. “But he should have gotten more (points).”
Korea’s Kim Hansol clinched the gold with a 14.675, with Taiwan’s Tang Chiahung settling for the silver with 14.425. China’s Lin Chaopan placed third with 14.225.
It was the first medal-less day for the Philippines, which fell even deeper in the medal standings at 18th spot with a lone gold and five bronze medals to show.
The picture elsewhere was bleak.
The Philippines’ Bridge Team composed of Alberto Quiogue, Joseph Roman Maliwat Jr. III, Kong Te Yang, Romulo Virola, Eleazar Cabanilla and Andrew Falcon finished 10th overall during the Men’s Team Qualification Round 7 with its overall score of 61.74.
Getting a better placing of seventh but still out of the running was the other PH Bridge Team of Gemma Milagros Mariano, Mary Cristy Ann de Guzman, Victoria Egan, Francis Allen Tan, George Soo and Francisco Alquiros in the Super Mixed Team Qualification Round 5 with its 43.85.
Also coming up empty-handed was taekwondo jin Arven Alcantara, who absorbed a 5-26 beating at the hands of World No.1 and back-to-back (2010 at 2014) Asian Games gold medalist na si Daehoon Lee in the Men’s -68 kg quarterfinals.
Lee was also the silver medalist in the 58kg division of the 2012 London Olympics and the 68kg category of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics sa Brazil.
Prior to this, Baby Jessica Canabal also fell to Nahid Kiyanichandeh of Iran, 15-23 in the women’s -49 kg quarterfinals.
In sport-climbing, Gerald Verosil found the going rough and bowed out of the men’s speed event after finishing 19th in the eliminations at the Jakabaring Sports City in Palembang.
The Singapore-based Verosil lost his grip early in scaling up the 12-meter (37-foot), man-made wall to clock 10.66 seconds on his first try before improving slightly with 7.95 seconds on his second attempt.