WITH redemption in mind, Carlos Edriel Yulo swings into action today in the 40th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, focusing on the floor exercise, parallel bars, and vault in the men’s qualifiers, at the Kitakyushu City Gymnasium in Kitaykushu, Japan.
“I feel all of this competition will be (all about) revenge, all of it,” Yulo said in his first public interview posted on the International Gymnastics Federation website last Monday after his dismal performance in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Entering the Tokyo Olympics as the reigning world floor exercise champion and top favorite in the event, the diminutive gymnast flopped and failed to qualify in the finals of his pet event, which was hardly offset when he placed fourth in the men’s vault finals.
“I still can’t forget what I did and how it felt, even now. Every time I think about it, it keeps me going. It pushes me to do more. I don’t want to do it again like that,” he recalled of his disappointing outing at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in the Japanese capital.
“This (the worlds) is like the Olympics. Every competition, big or small, I’m going to treat it like it’s the Olympics, because my target for the 2024 (Paris Games) is the all-around,” Yulo said as he fired a warning shot at his rivals.
“Right now, I’m doubling it. I’m doing the work double time,” added the Tokyo-based athlete, who competes in the vault at 5:20 p.m. (4:20 p.m. in Manila) with other entries from Italy, Czechoslovakia, Finland and Croatia.
“My specialties are the floor and vault. I’m getting good at the parallel bars, but I think it’s not enough if you compare me to the (other) world-class gymnast. But I believe in myself that I can do that someday,” Yulo said.
Gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion, who has been in Kitakyushu since last week, said that “Caloy finished podium training last Monday and he did so well. When he performs, everyone watches in complete silence and then followed by applause. He is the only one who gets applauded.
“Let’s pray that he can duplicate what he did in during training in the competition proper.”
Based in Tokyo since 2017 and a currently a student at Teikyo University, Yulo, 21, said he is still good for two more Olympics, possibly even more.
“I don’t think I’ve accomplished that much. I’m not really focusing on what I’ve achieved, I’m focusing on what I can do more, what I can be in the future,” said the humble gymnast, who became the first Filipino to bag a gold medal at the worlds in Stuttgart, Germany just over two years ago.
The top 24 in the all-around men’s qualifiers will advance to the all-around finals on Friday while the top eight finishers in each of the six apparatuses — floor exercise, rings, parallel bars, horizontal bar, pommel horse and vault — will compete in the apparatus finals on Saturday and Sunday.
