By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Caloy Yulo’s journey for another shot at world championship glory begins in Doha, Qatar next week when he leads the six-man Philippine team to the 9th Senior Asian Gymnastics Championships.
Scheduled from June 15 to 18 in the oil-rich country, the event will serve as a qualifier to the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, England on Oct. 29 to Nov. 6 with Yulo confident of retaining his vault title following an impressive five-gold haul in the Hanoi SEA Games.
Yulo is also tipped to do well in the floor exercise, an event very close to his heart.
Joining Yulo are John Matthew Vergara, Juancho Miguel Besana, Justine Ace De Leon, John Ivan Cruz and Jan Gwnn Timbang.
Accompanying them are Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) President Cynthia Carrion, coaches Munehiro Kugimiya and Reyland Capellan, and physiotherapist Jumpei Konno.
Making up for a disappointing showing in the Tokyo Games, Yulo took the gold in vault apart from winning a silver in parallel bars at the 50th FIG World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.
In Stuttgart, Germany in 2019, Yulo made history by topping the floor exercise following his enthralling performance.
In the Hanoi SEA Games, Yulo humbled the opposition to reign supreme in the individual all-around, floor exercise, rings, vault and horizontal bar, as well as a silver in the parallel bars.
