CARLOS “CALOY” YULO advanced to the final of the men’s parallel bars on Sunday morning to make up for his disappointment in two other events in the first leg of the International Gymnastics Federation Apparatus World Cup in Cottbus, Germany.
The final is set early morning Monday (Manila time).
Yulo tallied 14.933 to lead seven other qualifiers to the final—including second placer Illia Kovturn of Ukraine with 14.900 and third placer Ferhat Arican of Turkey with 14.700—at the Lausitz Arena in Cottbus.
Yulo clinched a bronze medal in the bars at the 2022 world championships in Liverpool last November and is hoping to advance to this year’s worlds in Antwerp, Belgium, in September.
“Caloy is tired of his previous results, but he’s already starting to get focused after he saw the performance of Juancho Miguel [Besana] and he told me that it’s going to be different in Doha,” Carrion-Norton told BusinessMirror on Sunday. “He will be more focused now.”
Besana is the other Philippine entry in Cottbus who made it to the final of vault after placing fourth with 14.433 points behind Armenia’s Artur Davtyan (14.949), Hong Kong’s Shek Wai Hung (14.600) and Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat (14,516).
Yulo vowed to go all out in the final and also stressed that he would be more focused in the second leg in Doha.
“It’s going to be a different me in Doha,” said the 23-year-old Yulo, who was world champion in floor exercise in 2018 and vault in 2021.
Yulo failed to advance to the floor exercise (18th) and rings (13th) finals in Cottbus.
The World Cup consists of three legs that serve as qualifiers to the world championships in Belgium, where slots to the Paris 2024 Olympics are at stake.
Doha will host the second leg from March 1 to 4, Baku (Azerbaijan) for the second leg from March 9 to 12 and Cairo (Egypt) for the third leg from April 27 to 30.