By NIKOLE JAVIER
Carlos Yulo put on another strong performance and claimed another silver medal in the individual all-around event of the 2023 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships late Thursday, June 15 at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
Yulo, 23, tallied 85.930 points after dazzling the crowd with his powerful show in all six events – floor, pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and high bar – to finish second behind Japanese rival Shinnosuke Oka.
The Japanese star tallied 86.065 while compatriot Takeru Kitazono wound up third.
With his top two finish, Yulo booked a spot in the World Championships in Belgium in September, which is the lone qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Judging his solid showing, Yulo is poised to bring home more medals topping the floor exercise (14.966), vault (14.833) and parallel bars (15.066).
He also advanced to the finals of the rings after finishing second in 14.300 and likewise qualified to the finals of parallel bars despite placing 9th with a score of 13.466.
A maximum of only two gymnasts per federation will qualify for the finals, with China and Japan each having three each in the horizontal bar top eight, Yulo took the last remaining berth.
Yulo fared badly in the pommel horse where he ended up 16th after getting only 13.266 points in the pommel horse where he finished in 16th.
Meanwhile, in the team event, Yulo and the Philippine men’s crew of Juancho Miguel Besana, Ivan Cruz, Justine Ace de Leon and Jann Gwynn Timbang missed out on the worlds after only finishing in seventh.
The Filipino team had a total of 237.193 points, while the Chinese team won the gold with a remarkable 256.762 points.
Japan and Kazakhstan rounded out the podium with 256.694 and 246.282 points for silver and bronze, respectively.
Aside from Yulo, Besana also competed in the individual all-around in all six apparatus and finished in 28th spot with 73.531 points.
Yulo will return to action for the apparatus finals on Saturday, June 17.
