CARLOS Edriel Yulo was shocked and in disbelief after posting a record-breaking score of 15.566 points in ruling the qualifying event of the men’s parallel bars of the 50th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships last Wednesday night at the Kitakyushu City Gymnasium in Japan.
“The (score in the) parallel bars, I was really shocked. I was not really satisfied about my showing because I thought I was little bit stiff and couldn’t go to the finals,” Yulo said in an interview with the GymCastic Youtube site shortly after his outstanding performance.
His eye-popping score surpassed his own national mark of 14.333 points set during the all-around qualifiers of the 49th edition of the meet in Stuttgart, Germany two years ago.
The diminutive Pinoy dynamo also set a new national record in placing third in the men’s vault qualifiers, scoring 14.808 points that sunk his previous standard of 14.716 when he finished fourth in the last Tokyo Olympic Games.
Despite his strong vault showing, Yulo said it was far from his best “because the triple twist (in the air) was kinda a little bit off today. But it is not bad.”
Yulo was back in dazzling form in kicking off his title defense in the floor exercise, topping the qualifying with 15.166 points, a much superior score to the 13.566 he posted in the Tokyo Olympic Games that led to his early exit in his favorite event.
Asked about his overall showing, Yulo paused for a second then acknowledged that “I did great today. I am feeling good, actually.”
Gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion said the two-hour delay in the afternoon as organizers disinfected the arena after a Colombian athlete tested positive for COVID-19 may have benefited Yulo.
“The delay in the competition might have been good for Caloy (Yulo’s nickname) because he was more relaxed in his performance as most of the crowd had left already,” Carrion noted.
All eyes will be on Yulo tomorrow when he tries to retain his floor exercise crown at 4:10 p.m. (5:10 p.m. Manila time) before getting a crack at the gold in the finals of the vault and parallel bars on Sunday.
