By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Impressive.
Carlos Yulo ended his stint at the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Series with two more medals – a silver and a bronze – on Saturday, March 4, in Doha, Qatar.
Coming off a gold medal win in the floor exercise – his pet event – the diminutive dynamo put up a gallant stand against his fierce counterparts but settled only for a bronze in vault with a 14,883 average, finishing behind eventual gold medalist and reigning world champion Artur Davtyan of Armenia (15.083) and silver winner Igor Radivilov of Ukraine (14.899).
Yulo performed a handspring front double pike on his first vault to score 14.966, and a Kasamatsu double twist on his second for 14.800.
His medal finish was a big improvement from his performance in the first leg of the series in Cottbus, Germany last week, where he failed to advance to the medal round by finishing 12th in the qualifications.
Yulo returned a few hours later with a near flawless execution in parallel bars to finish with 14.933 points for the silver.
FIG, the world governing body of the sport, described Yulo’s performance in social media as smooth as the Tokyo Olympian emphasized each element on parallel bars so well “that by the end of his routine, each skill is eliciting its own round of applause.”
“That’s the star power of Yulo,” FIG wrote.
But Ukrainian Ilia Kovtun, who dominated the first leg of the series last week in Cottbus, Germany, was much better in the eyes of the judges. He won the gold medal behind a complex yet impeccable routine to produce a 14.966 score.
Turkey’s Arican Ferhat finished third in 14.733.
Overall, it was a successful campaign for Yulo in the second of this four-leg series after grabbing the floor exercise gold medal Friday, March 3.
The third leg of the series will be held on March 9 to 12 in Baku, Azerbaijan while the last and final leg will be on April 27 to 30 in Cairo, Egypt.
