By MARK REY MONTEJO
Filipino gymnast star Carlos Yulo was back to his old, deadly form and advanced to the finals of the vault and parallel bars in the FIG Artistics Gymnastics World Cup Series on Thursday, April 18 in Doha, Qatar.
Putting behind a lackluster performance in the floor exercise where he finished a far 21st, Yulo, 24, came fully prepared and focused this time to get the desired results to the delight of his team.
Combining power and grace, Yulo was again a joy to watch as he went on to finish second in both disciplines that earned him back the respect of his peers.
He tallied 14.966 points in vault and 14.633 in parallel bars to advance easily to the final round.
The Malate, Manila native proved that there’s no rust in his gears, putting up a remarkable 15.3 points in his first vault, besting all of his foes but relaxed a bit in his second try, posting 14.633 points that pulled him slightly down to second place.
Yulo, who already secured his spot in 2024 Paris Olympics, trailed former world titlist Artur Davtyan of Armenia who produced 15.116.
But he was slightly ahead of Dominican Republic’s Reyes Audrys Nin (14.549), Australia’s James Bacueti (14.516) and Niccolo Vannucchi (14.383) to complete the top five in vault event.
Uzbekistan’s Rasuljon Abdurakhimov topped the parallel bars after totalling 14.900 points.
Meanwhile, his compatriot Levi Jung-Ruivivar barged into the uneven bars finals to boost her Paris bid after listing 13.200 points – good for 8th place.
The vault and parallel bars finals are set on Saturday, April 20.
