TOKYO — Carlos Yulo returns to action for the first time in nine days, looking to redeem himself after missing out on a chance to go for gold in his favorite event in men's artistic gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics.
Yulo is one of the eight finalists that will vie for the medals in the men's vault on Monday evening at the Ariake Gymnastics, an underdog in an event where South Korea’s Shin Jea Hwan and Turkey’s Ahmet Onder are the favorites.
The Manila-born gymnast himself played down his chances in the vault but vowed to go all out, if only to make up for his failure to reach the finals of the floor exercise where he is the reigning world champion and gold medal favorite.
“Hopefully he is more relaxed this time,” said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion Norton, who was in the stands when a sloppy Yulo performance in the floor exercise left him 44th in a field of 64 on a 13.566 score.
Yulo admitted he was surprised to make it to the vault finals, saying it was the first time he did so in a major tournament.
"Pagkatapos ng floor [exercise routine] ko, medyo down na po ako kaya nagulat nga ako," Yulo said at the end of the qualifying phase in gymnastics. "Hindi ko nga po alam na pumasok ako. Pero naka-finals po ako, magandang bagay po 'yon."
But unlike in the pre-Olympic buildup where they had to prepare for performances in six apparatus, Yulo and his Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya had nine days to focus solely on his jumps in the vault.
Anything can happen
After a consultation with Yulo's coach, Carrion Norton said Coach Mune picked Shin and Onder as favorites in the event but pointed out that anything can happen.
"According to Coach Mune, the two top vault athletes are Korea and Turkey with the difficulty of 6.02,” she said. “Caloy’s difficulty is 5.60. If Shin and Onder earn deductions and Caloy makes a perfect score, we have a good chance.”
Yulo's 14.712 points landed him in sixth place behind topnotcher Hwan (14.866). But he expected the scores to reach the 15-point level and he didn't rule himself out of doing so, especially if he nails his two landings.
"Kaya pa po 'yan itaas," he said of his score. "Kapag na-stick mo po ang landing, mas mataas po yan. So kapag na-stick po 'yung dalawa [na landing], aabot po ng 15."
Aside from the three, the other finalists are Armenia’s Artur Davytan (14.866), Russian Olympic Committee bet Nikita Nagorny (14.783), Brazil’s Caiou Sauza (14.700), Hong Kong’s Shek Wai Hung (14.274), and Spain’s Nicolau Mir (14.133).
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