Yulo falls; boxing, jiujitsu start gold hunt

Carlos Edriel Yulo during his floor exercise routine in the gymnastics competition of the 2018 Asian Games.

JAKARTA—Carlos Yulo was nowhere near the form he displayed in qualifying and finished way out of a medal in his pet floor exercise Thursday as the Philippines suffered its first dry day since the 18th Asian Games’ grandiose opening ceremonies.

The 18-year-old Yulo stumbled in the landing at the halfway point of his routine, garnering just 13.500 points to bow out of a podium finish as early as when the fifth of the eight finalists, Kazakhstan’s Karimi Milad, took the floor and dislodged him from third spot.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for the struggling PH contingent, which only has a gold to show courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz in the 53-kilogram class of women’s weightlifting on Tuesday and the five bronze medals won by the men’s and women’s poomsae trios teams, taekwondo’s Pauline Lopez and wushu’s Agatha Wong and Divine Wally.

“I didn’t get a good look at the floor and didn’t know what to do, that’s why I stumbled,” said Yulo in Filipino as he said a heartfelt thanks to the Filipinos here and back home for the support. “I am not really disappointed [in finishing out of the medal], but this (making the finals) isn’t my target.”

Next target

Asked what his next target would be, Yulo said at the mixed zone of Jakarta International Expo’s Hall D: “The Olympics [in Tokyo in 2020]. I want to win a medal, any medal.”

Yulo topped classification with a score that was a full point better than his final round effort, and to make matters even more painful, his preliminary round score would have been good for a solid silver, with the champion, Kim Han-sol of South Korea, tallying 14.675.

Tang Chia-Hung of Chinese Taipei, who was the first man to perform, scored 14.425 for second place, with Lin Chaopan of China the bronze medal winner at 14.225.

Yulo, who wound up second to the last, still has a shot at a medal when he sees action in the vault finals on Friday.

“I’m not that confident [in the vault], but I will give it my all,” said Yulo, who was third in the same event in the World Championships two months ago.

The Philippines’ gold hunt continues in two sports with respectable chances of hitting the target: Boxing and jiujitsu.

First round byes

Boxing gets off the ground, with four male pugs and one of two Filipino women entries getting first round byes.

Only Mario Fernandez in the men’s 56-kg division, Joel Bacho in the 69-kg class and Nesty Petecio in the women’s 57-kg category will see action at Jakarta International Expo.

Jiujitsu will count on Annie Ramirez and Margarita Ochoa, gold medalists in the 2016 Asian Beach Games, to deliver.

The women’s volleyball team finally got it going on Thursday after scoring a 25-18, 25-21, 25-22 win over Hong Kong over at GOR Bulungan, with Alyssa Valdez leading the Nationals with 14 points built around 10 kills.

“It was all about pride for us,” Valdez said after their first win that came on the heels of two straight sets losses at the hands of Thailand and Japan.

The volleybelles will next face Indonesia at the close of their classification schedule on Saturday, and Valdez said that they will still go all out despite virtually making the quarterfinals already. “We have a lot of pride in this team and it wouldn’t be bad winning against Indonesia for a change.”

The Blu Girls, another medal hopeful, were still playing Chinese Taipei at press time, shooting for a win that would guarantee them of at least a bronze and a shot at the title game against China.

After losing to the Taiwanese late Wednesday night, 3-2, the Blu Girls dropped to third place in the page format playoff and would need to win two straight games to earn a crack at the gold medal. Losing to the Taiwanese would take the Blu Girls out of the medal race, while a win keeps them alive for another shot at Japan for the gold.

7 shots down

In golf over at Pondok Indah, the women’s team combined for a one-under-par 143 to be seven shots off the lead set by Japan. Yuka Saso cracked par with a 71, with either 72s of Bianca Pagdanganan and LK Go counting.

Furue Ayaka assembled a 67 and the Japanese counted either 69s of Sae Ogura and Riri Sadoyama.