By REYNALD MAGALLON
Filipino gymnast Caloy Yulo looked poised to advance to the finals of the all-around, floor exercise and vault events following a dazzling performance in the individual qualification of the men’s artistic gymnastics in the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Bercy Arena on Saturday, July 28.
Looking to erase the ugly memory of his performance in the Tokyo edition, the 24-year-old Yulo put himself in strong contention of reaching the all-around final after landing at the eighth spot through two subdivisions as of posting time.
He finished with 83.631 total, very well inside the Top 24 that will advance to the all-around final.
Setting the tone to Yulo’s performance was a near-perfect showing on his pet event floor exercise where he garnered 14.766 points, good for an initial second spot and being in the running to advance to the final.
Yulo struggled a bit in the pommel horse and in the rings before bouncing back strong with an impressive 14.683 average in vault, enough to break into the magic 8 that will advance to the apparatus finals.
The third and last subdivision is scheduled on the wee hours of Sunday, July 28, and barring any drastic changes in the rankings, Yulo should be able to qualify at least in the floor exercise and all-around finals.
Yulo finished 28th in pommel horse after garnering just 13.066 points while also plummeting to the 35th in the rings after only scoring 13.000 points.
The two-time world champion did end strong in the rotations after scoring 14.533 in the parallel bars and 13.466 in the horizontal bar although not enough to advance to its finals after landing at 17th and 21st spots respectively.
