By REYNALD MAGALLON
Karl Eldrew Yulo proved to be a cut from the same cloth as his celebrated brother Caloy.
Well, that was obvious.
The younger Yulo showed that he didn’t only share the looks and demeanor of his world champion brother but also possessed the same prowess and grace inside the gymnastic floor.
Yulo, the individual all-around winner in the men’s artistic gymnastics in the 2023 Palarong Pambansa, will be gunning for four more medals in the apparatus finals on Friday, Aug 4 at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum .
Yulo was impeccable in his routine in floor exercise after getting a score of 14.5 points before combining power and flexibility in the pommel horse (9.40), vault (13.25) and horizontal bar (8.8) for a total of 39.85 points to bag his first gold this year and his fourth in individual all-around since winning it first in 2015 in Davao.
The budding gymnastic star will be seeing action in all of the apparatus finals as he guns for a possible sweep of the secondary men’s gymnastic category and surpass his medal haul in the previous editions of the Palaro.
Yulo admitted that he was also feeling the pressure despite being the clear cut favorite to dominate, if not win it all.
“May pressure pa rin po kasi maraming nage-expect na kailangan makagold, kailangan walang tumba, kailangan walang mali,” he added.
Yulo has two medals already after also helping the Big City representatives top the men’s secondary team event. Should he complete the sweep, Yulo will surpass his best haul of five golds in Palaro – a feat he achieved twice in 2017 in Antique and in 2019 in Davao.
