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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Yulo in 2-gold haul in Baku

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CARLOS “CALOY” YULO ruled men’s vault on Sunday and adding his victory in the parallel bars on Saturday, went on a two-gold medal splurge at the International Gymnastics Federation Artistic World Cup Series third leg at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan.

After crashing out of the floor exercise qualification round last Friday, Yulo made sure he won’t bomb out in the event that gave him a world championship gold medal.

He won his first gold with the bars Saturday to hike to three his gold medal haul in the four-leg qualifying series for the world championships in Antwerp in September.

Yulo took the runway as if he owned it, went airborne for a 460-degree marked with grace and precision and landed perfectly for a gold medal-clinching 14.933 points.

Britain’s Harry Hepworth could only settle with a silver with his 14.816 while Hong Kong’s Shek Wai Hung settled for the bronze with 14.176.

On Saturday, the Tokyo Olympian tallied 15.400 points for his first gold medal in the parallel bars, in the process ending the reign of Ukranian Kovtun in the apparatus.

Kovtun—who won gold in each of the last six competitions he took part in—got 15.366 for the silver and France’s Cameron-Lie Bernard got a bronze with 14.600.

“That’s Caloy’s first ever gold medal in the parallel bars,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) President Cynthia Carrion-Norton told BusinessMirror. “That only means he’s improving in all apparatuses and there’s a possibility he can win several golds in the Olympics.”

The 23-year-old Yulo, owner of five Southeast Asian Games gold medals, didn’t go extreme with his degree of difficulty with the bars—he went with 6.5 to Kovtun’s 6.6.

But Yulo was the better gymnast in execution at 8.900 to the Ukrainian’s 8.766.

Yulo also campaigned in the floor exercise and rings, but just couldn’t win them all.

He failed to qualify for the floor exercise final after placing 21st with 13.100 points in qualification and was seventh place with 14.166 score in the rings final.

“The reason he did not do well on the floor was that we’re trying more difficult sequences for his routine,” she added.

Yulo already won a floor exercise gold medal in the Doha second leg last March 4 on top of a silver in bars also in Doha and bronze medals in vault also in Doha and bars in Cottbus.

Next up is the series’ fourth and last leg set April 27 to 30 in Cairo, Egypt.

Forty-eight men will qualify for the world championships by ranking in the top eight on each apparatus at the end of the Apparatus World Cup series.

Each gymnast who places in the top 12 in an apparatus receives points—gold is worth 30 points—that coincide with their ranking.

Image credits: AP file photo

Read full article on BusinessMirror

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