IT took eight years for Carlos Yulo to redeem himself at the Asian Games.
As a budding 18-year prospect in his first Asiad in Jakarta, Yulo had a dream start when he ranked first in the floor exercise qualification round. But still green on the big stage, Yulo faded to second to the last among the eight finalists.
Nine Southeast Asian Games gold medals, 12 Asian Championship titles, and two Olympic wins later, Yulo finally made up for that 2018 Asiad letdown by winning the floor exercise crown on Thursday in Aichi-Nagoya - his first in the quadrennial showpiece.
READ Carlos Yulo wins PH's first Asiad gold by ruling floor exercise
Yulo said his Thursday's victory felt like it was Paris 2024 all over again because he came to that Olympics wanting to atone for the Tokyo nightmare three years prior when he failed to even make it to the finals of the floor exercise.
“Olympics nga po ‘yung feeling,” Yulo told the media pool.
At that time, he already had one world title in 2019 in the floor exercise under his belt but his Olympic debut in Tokyo proved a nightmare as he bungled a few of his landings, the bright lights perhaps also contributing to the bad performance.
Yulo had to wait for that same redemption at the Asiad.
He never had a chance to bounce back in 2023 as he skipped the Hangzhou, China edition in lieu of the world championships held at the same time – understandably so since it was a qualifier for the Paris Olympics.
That decision proved to be sound as he qualified for Paris through that worlds in Jakarta, and later won a pair of Olympic gold medals.
“Nung 2018, sumali po ako sa Jakarta. Medyo messed up po talaga ‘yung competition na ‘yun. Ganun din po nung 2020 Olympics sa Tokyo. Na-redeem ko po siya ngayon ‘yung performance ko,” Yulo said.
Yulo finally bounced back, but admitted it wasn’t exactly his best showing even with the 14.666 score, and despite what looked like a near-perfect performance from the audience’s perspective.
Yulo said he nearly overshot his landing during one of his early routines, but made the quick adjustment to save himself from a penalty and a point deduction.
That proved to be the difference as he won the gold against Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi by just 0.066.
“Hindi po ‘yun ‘yung gusto kong routine and hindi ‘yun ‘yung pine-prepare ko. Pero kasi during the second pass, napalakas ‘yung kick ko and alam kong sosobra ako kapag tinuloy ko pa po siya.
“‘Yun na po ‘yung kakayanan ko para lang mai-save at ma-recover ‘yung routine ko. I’m really happy and thankful na walang nangyaring masama sa akin at sa lahat ng competitors. Nakuha po natin ‘yung best result… Happy lang ako na maganda ‘yung landings at executions natin today,” he added.
Yulo is not done yet as he has two more chances at an Asiad gold in the vault and parallel bars on Friday back at the Nagoya General Gymnasium Rainbow Hall.
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