Philippines gymnastics chief hopes Carlos Yulo can repeat Olympic gold medal glory at world championships
“The results of Carlos in both the men’s floor exercise and vault during the qualifying round were very encouraging, so we hope and pray he can match his golden double in Paris,” Carreon said on Wednesday at Hotel Mulia, Jakarta, as quoted by Sunstar.
Carreon, who has worked with Yulo since he was 10, said the 25-year-old has the talent and experience to deliver if he executes his routines cleanly.
Born and raised in Leveriza, Malate, just behind the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, Yulo set himself up for another big weekend by finishing second in the floor exercise qualifiers and topping the vault qualifiers.
Yulo scored 14.566 points on floor exercise, just 0.134 behind British leader and Olympic bronze medalist Jake Jarman, who posted 14.700.
Carreon said a small error on Yulo’s second pass cost him top spot in qualifying but expressed confidence it can be corrected for the final.
Olympic champion Carlos Yulo represents the Philippines at a competition. Photo by Instagram/@c_edrielzxs
Australian coach Nedal Altyousef, who now mentors Yulo and is also a brevet judge, praised Yulo’s form.
“I believe our athlete has the cleaner routine,” Altyousef told Sunstar.
On vault, Yulo led the qualifiers with 14.750 points on average after 14.900 in the first attempt and 14.600 in the second. Armenian Arthur Davtyan, the Paris Olympic silver medallist, will be Yulo’s main rival in the vault final after posting 14.566 in the qualifiers.
Yulo already has a distinguished world championships record: he won his first world gold in Stuttgart in 2019 with a career-best of 15.300 points on floor, and later added vault gold and parallel bars silver in the world championships Kitakyushu after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
“We urge our countrymen and his fans back home to pray for Carlos so he can make history once again in the world championships by sweeping both of his events in the finals starting Friday,” Carrion added.
