by Kristel Satumbaga
Carlos Yulo intensified his bid for a spot to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when he bagged the floor exercise gold medal in the 2019 Melbourne World Cup Gymnastics in Australia on Saturday.
The 19-year-old teen sensation bested fierce competition by tallying 14.566 points ahead of Japan’s Hibiki Arayashiki, Olympian Rayderley Zapata of Spain and 2018 European champion Dominick Cunningham of Great Britain.
The PH bet scored 6.200 in degree of difficulty and 8.366 on execution.
Arayashiki, Zapata and Cunningham all scored 14.500 but the Japanese bet settled for the silver medal after the tiebreak.
Zapata, the 2015 European Games champion who competed in the 2016 Rio Games, and Cunningham, the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, shared the bronze.
On Thursday, Yulo qualified for the finals after finishing third among 26 other gymnastics with 14.133 points.
He tried to qualify in the vault, but failed after finishing 12th with 13.974.
It was a big start for Yulo this season as he has been rigorously training in Japan to qualify for the Tokyo Games. The Melbourne World Cup is just one of the tournaments where gymnasts can gain qualifying points for the Olympics.
Yulo is also being eyed as the country’s best bet in the Southeast Asian Games which the country is hosting in November.
“It’s a proud accomplishment,” said Philippine Sports Commission chairman Butch Ramirez.
In 2018, Yulo made waves after becoming the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to win a medal in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, snagging a bronze also in floor exercise.
