CARLOS “CALOY” YULO groped for form to crash out of the men’s floor exercise and rings in the first leg of the International Gymnastics Federation Apparatus World Cup on Friday morning at the Lausitz Arena in Cottbus, Germany.
The Tokyo Olympian Yulo had a 13.400 score to finish in 18th place in the 52-athlete floor exercise, a frustrating performance that extended to the rings where he salvaged 13th place on 13.833 points in a field of 47 gymnasts.
Gymnastics Association of the Philippines President Cynthia Carrion-Norton rued the two-week vacation Yulo took in Manila before the Cottbus event affected his performance.
“Coach Mune [Munehiro Kugiyama] said Caloy’s two-week vacation in Manila made him lose lose energy,” Carrion-Norton told BusinessMirror on Friday. “But there are two more events so let’s see.”
Kugiyama is Yulo’s long-time coach who steered him to a slot in the Tokyo Olympics and world championship gold medals in floor exercise and vault.
Yulo will try again in the qualification round for vault and parallel bars on Saturday.
Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Artem Dolgopyat of Israel topped the qualification round for floor exercise with 14.833 points, followed by Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi (14.600) and France’s Benjamin Osberger (14.066). Ten athletes advanced to the final.
Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias, on the other hand, topped the qualifiers in the rings with 14,733 points, followed by Iran’s Mahdi Ahmad Kohani (14,666) and Turkey’s Adem Asil (14,633).
The Cottbus tournament is the first leg of a series of qualifiers for the Antwerp world championships, where automatic berths to the Paris 2024 Olympics are at stake.
After Cottbus, Germany, Yulo will proceed to Doha (Qatar) for the March 1 to 4 second leg, then to Baku (Azerbaijan) for the March 9 to 12 third leg and finally to Cairo (Egypt) for the April 27 to 30 fourth leg.
The world championships are set September 30 to October 8.