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Yulo sees medal hopes dashed in floor exercise at gymnastics world championships

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Manolo Pedralvez

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="EPA-EFE" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/life/11/05/20221105-yulo.jpg"/><figcaption>Yulo competes in the floor exercise during the men’s all-around final at the 51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Liverpool, November 4, 2022. Adam Vaughan, EPA-EFE</figcaption></figure></div>A podium finish continued to elude Carlos Edriel Yulo Saturday afternoon (Saturday night in Manila), finishing a woeful 7th place in the finals of his pet event, the men’s the floor exercise, in the 51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the M&amp;S Bank Arena.Favored after topping the qualifiers of the event last Monday with a score of 15.266 points, Yulo, who was the fifth athlete to perform, landed on his butt early after executing a two-and-a-half front double pike, grounding him to 13.300 points and out of medal contention.It was the Pinoy pocket dynamo’s worst score in the event in his fourth straight appearance in the world meet, certainly a far cry from his historic gold-medal clinching score of 15.30 points in the 2019 edition held in Stuttgart, Germany.Briton Giarnni Regina-Moran gave the hometown crowd cause for celebration in clinching the gold with a top score of 14.500 points, newly-crowned men’s all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan took the silver (14.500) while compatriot Ryosuke Doi settled for bronze (14.266). Yulo could not hide his disappointment over his miserable showing on the floor exercise, noting that that he also had the best score of 15.166 points on the mat in the men’s all-around final just the other day in the stint supported by the Philippine Sports Commission. “I am really disappointed, obviously, Yesterday was okay – I hit it. But today I had a feeling that I lost myself,” he said,” but maybe I will gain experience from here despite my performance. I want to come back stronger next year.”Asked to explain what went wrong in an event that first made him famous worldwide, Yulo replied: “I didn’t kick like I do in in practice. It was a bit too soft. I felt I couldn’t make it, but I tried to correct it on the landing. It was affected by my first stumble, and then it is like a chain, you can’t stop it.”The outstanding Filipino gymnast, however, refused to cry over spilled milk, considering he still had the finals of the vault and parallel bars to look forward two at the end of the end of competition on Sunday. “I feel a bit down because of what happened today but I’m going to review what I did today and build my motivation again,” the soft-spoken athlete said with determination. Fans back home will hope Yulo will show the same resiliency at the worlds like last year in Kitakyushu, Japan when he also failed to podium in the floor exercise, finishing fifth among the eight finalists with a score of 14.566 points, to surge back to seciure the vault gold before wrapping it up with a silver in the parallel bars. He will try defend his vault crown Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. in Manila) before capping his outing with the parallel bars at 3:25 p.m. (11:25 p.m. in Manila).

Yulo's 13.300 was good for seventh place out of eight competitors, with a slip in his first run dooming his chances on Saturday.