OLYMPIC vault and floor exercise champion Carlos Yulo is in familiar company in the finals of the 53rd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.
The 25-year-old Yulo said this days before he made the finals on two of his favorite events, the floor and the vault, on Sunday evening, as he braces for tough challenges from Olympic medalists like Jake Jarman and Artur Davtyan.
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“I know that they’re really working hard for the spot and I’m really grateful that I’m at their level and putting that much pressure on me, especially in the floor and vault,” said Yulo, who topped the vault event, and was second in the floor exercise, during the qualifications held at the Indonesia Arena in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Leveriza, Manila-born Yulo, talked about his reflections on the event’s official website, as he averaged 14.750 off a beautiful-piked Dragulescu and handspring front, to go with a 2 and 1/2 twist, when he led in the vault.
Yulo’s preparations comes as Daiki Hashimoto won his third consecutive all-around crown Wednesday, after emerging as the highest scorer in the vault (14.466) and horizontal bar (14.700).
Zhang Boheng of China and rising Swiss star Noe Seifert took the silver and bronze after Hashimoto’s domestic rival Oka Shinnosuke (JPN) faded in the floor exercise, after missing a 2.5 twist to front layout and fell to fourth.
“It’s going to be a tough competition for me at the same time, but I’m going to make sure to prepare myself,” added Yulo, as he gets ready for the two final events that will happen on Friday and Saturday evening.
Yulo was ahead of two-time Olympic medallist Artur Davtyan of Armenia, who had a 14.566. Ukrainian Nazar Chepurnyi was third at 14.316.
“(Oka) Shinnosuke, (Hashimoto) Daiki, Zhang Boheng will be there, all the Americans, the British gymnasts,” noted Yulo.
In the vault, Yulo was second to Filipino-British bet Jarman, who led the qualifiers at 14.7. Yulo averaged 14.566 on this event.
American gymnast Nelson Kameron, who was penalized at 0.1, was third with 14.3.
“There’s a lot, but right now I’m really focusing on going to the LA Olympics,” said Yulo, who admitted that he feels the pressure for him to qualify of the 2028 Olympics.
Hashimoto earlier suffered a fall in the floor exercise and dropped out at no. 59.
Jarman, who shares Filipino heritage with Yulo, is the reigning world champion in the vault and the Olympic bronze medallist in the floor.
“It was really tough, but after having so much pressure on me, right now I feel like I just need to really pick what I’m going to be focusing on, especially on the big competitions like World Championships, Asian Games,” said Yulo.
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