CARLOS “CALOY” YULO consoled himself with the men’s parallel bars bronze medal in the first leg of the International Gymnastics Federation Apparatus World Cup Monday at the Lausitz Arena in Cottbus, Germany.
Unable to recall the form that won him two world championships gold medals, Yulo scored 15.166 points to get himself on the podium alongside gold medalist Illia Kovtun (15.366) of Ukraine and silver medalist Mateo Levantesi (15.266) of Italy.
Yulo, 22, was a 2019 world championships floor exercise gold medalist in Stuttgart that qualified him for the Tokyo Olympics, a feat he repeated in vault in 2021 in Kitakyushu where he also got silver in the bars.
He went silver in bars and bronze in vault last year in Liverpool.
But he wasn’t focused as expected of him in Cottbus. He went on a two-week vacation in Manila—losing precious training hours—before flying to Germany for the first of three legs of qualifying for the world championships in Antwerp in September.
Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion-Norton acknowledged the 23-year-old Yulo’s lack of focus in Cottbus, but was assured of her gymnast’s redemption performance in the second leg in Doha from March 1 to 4.
“Caloy wasn’t focused at all,” said Carrion-Norton whose other ward in Cottbus, 18-year-old Juancho Miguel Besana, wound up eighth and last in the men’s vault final with 13.843 points.
Armenia’s Artur Davtyan (15.133), Iran’s Mahdi Olfati (14.983) and Hong Kong’s Wai Hung Shek (14.733) finished 1-2-3 in vault.
“Caloy’s coach says he needs to add difficulty in his routine when he gets to Doha,” said Carrion-Norton, referring to Yulo’s long-time Japanese coach Munehiro Kugiyama.
Yulo didn’t advance to the floor exercise and rings final in Cottbus.
After Doha, the series moves to Baku (Azerbaijan) from March 9 to 12 and Cairo (Egypt) for the final leg from April 27 to 30.
Yulo is hoping to make the September 30 to October 8 world championships for another shot at the Olympics in Paris next year. He will skip the Hangzhou 19th Asian Games whose September 3 to October 8 schedule runs conflict with Antwerp.