CALOY Yulo’s bronze medal in the recently concluded FIG’s Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series kickoff leg in Cottbus, Germany isn’t that bad for someone who has little time to prepare.
But expect the 23-year-old force of nature to bounce back strong in the ensuing editions including in Doha, Qatar unfurling today up to Saturday.
“We will improve in Doha as Caloy (Yulo) has very little training in his two-week stay in the Philippines,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines President Cynthia Carrion Norton yesterday told The STAR.
The world champion gymnast, who topped the parallel bars qualifying round with a 14.933, had a 15.166 in the finals, which was good enough to snare the bronze.
Ukrainian Illia Kovtun took the gold with a 15.366 while Italian Matteo Levantesi the silver with a 15.266.
The podium finish averted a shutout for the 2019 Stuttgart floor exercise gold winner and 2021 Kitakyushu vault gold medalist that also came as a soothing balm after fizzling out in floor exercise, rings and vault in Stuttgart.
Another Filipino, Juancho Miguel Besana, fourth in the qualifier with a 14.433, finished eighth in the vault finals with a 13.483 in an event topped by reigning world champion Artur Davtyan of Israel, who blew away the field with a 15.133.
But by just making it that far, the 19-year-old Mr. Besana, the vault bronze medalist and part of the Mr. Yulo-led squad that took the silver men’s team bronze in last year’s Hanoi Southeast Asian Games, had already made a good account of himself as no Filipino before came close to stepping on that stage outside Mr. Yulo himself. — Joey Villar