WHEN Carlos Yulo goes for gold in the floor exercise and vault, one of his toughest opponents will be Great Britain’s Jake Jarman.
As you may already know, Jarman's mom is a Filipina who traces her roots in Cebu. Even though he was born in Peterborough, England, Jarman has visited the Philippines over the years, even recently posting a picture of him wearing an ‘I Love Cebu’ shirt.
The British gymnast has been churning good numbers in the floor exercise, topping the apparatus in the all-around final and qualifications with scores of 14.900 and 14.766, respectively.
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The 22-year-old Jarman also topped the vault in the final with 15.166, and second in the qualifications with 15.166, looming as the biggest threat to Yulo’s bid to capture gold in the two events.
While rivals in the field of gymnastics, the two have also developed a friendship as well, something that isn’t new to the very closely knit community of the sport. Jarman even gave Yulo a helping hand earlier this year.
After Yulo was left without a coach following his split with longtime Japanese mentor Munehiro Kugimiya, he got an invitation to train at the British gymnastics training center in Lilleshall, according to a report by Olympics.com.
Yulo accepted the offer, and there, he trained side-by-side with Jarman.
British journalist Craig Tilley posted a screenshot of a photo of Jarman and Yulo together at the gymnastics center on X (formerly Twitter) last February.
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Prior to the Paris Olympics, Jarman has earned a name as one of the best specialists in the world. He won a gold in last year’s World Championship in the vault, and captured gold in 2022 Commonwealth Games and bronze in the 2022 European Championships in the floor exercise.
The two will face each other in the battle for gold in the floor exercise on Saturday and vault, respectively.
Yulo finished second in the floor exercise behind Jarman in the qualifications with a score of 14.766, and seventh in the all-around final with a 14.333.
In the vault, Yulo ranked sixth in the qualification with 14.800, and fourth in the all-around final with 14.766.
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