FILIPINO dynamo Carlos Yulo is back on the prowl for an Artistic Gymnastics World Championships gold medal.
The 26-year-old Olympic double-gold medalist put himself in prime position to add more mints to his growing collection after barging into the finals of his two pet events — the floor exercise and vault — in the 54th edition of the Worlds in Rotterdam, the Netherlands over the weekend.
Just less than a month after his magnificence in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games where he snared two golds, Mr. Yulo was on the hunt again after finishing second in floor exercise with a 14.500 and sixth in vault where he averaged 14.266 to qualify to the finals of both apparatuses.
The floor exercise finale is on Saturday while vault the next day.
In the floor exercise medal round, Mr. Yulo will be faced by familiar foes including Russian Arsenii Dukhno, a former world junior champion who topped the qualification phase with a 14.700, as well as Israeli Artem Dolgopyat (14.300) and Great Britain’s Jake Jarman (14.133).
In vault, Mr. Yulo will face an equally strong field that included Mr. Jarman, who posted the best average of 14.633 and fierce rival in Armenian Artur Davtyan (14.663).
If Mr. Yulo ends up winning anew, it will be added to his medal case of one floor exercise gold he won in Stuttgart, Germany seven years ago and two vault mints in 2021 in Kitakyushu, Japan and in 2025 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
It wasn’t as rosy though in the men’s individual all-around where Mr. Yulo wound up 34th with a 77.631.
Eldrew Yulo, his younger sibling, got his baptism of fire in the Worlds and was buried under the avalanche of the ultra-strong opposition and finished 84th in the individual all-around with a 67.032.
He also did not make the cut in any apparatuses.
Good thing there was his brother to save the day. — Joey Villar