Tokyo or bust

Just to be among the world’s finest artistics gymnasts should have been enough for Carlos Edriel Yulo, who already wrote sporting history by becoming the first Filipino to achieve such a feat.

But the 18-year-old national athlete is setting his sights on something bigger: A ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Yulo tumbled to 23rd out of 24 contestants in the men’s all-around final of the 48th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships late Wednesday in Doha.

He tallied a total score of 77.465 after performances in the pommel horse, still rings, parallel bars, horizontal bar, vault and floor exercise.

It was a solid performance, especially after making the final cut of 24 finalists, but Yulo refused to be satisfied.

“I do not feel happy, because I think I made several mistakes,” Yulo told International Gymnast Magazine. “My dream is to compete in the Olympic Games and be a great gymnast. I train in Japan. I want to send a message to my whole country because I am very grateful to them every time they support me to go to compete in other countries.”

Yulo still has a chance to medal in his favorite event, the men’s floor exercise, which will have its final on Friday.

Yulo placed fourth after the preliminary of floor exercise, where he is hoping to also snag a ticket to Tokyo and become the first Filipino gymnast in 50 years to qualify for the Olympics.

Russia’s Artur Dalaloyan garnered 87.598 points to rule the all-round final, beating China’s Xiao RuDeng (87.598) by better execution scores after all the six apparatuses. Russia’s Nikita Nagorny was at third place with 86.331.

Yulo scored 14.666 points in the floor exercise, 14.166 in the parallel bars, 13.1 in the vault and 10.933 in the horizontal bars.

“He already wrote history by merely competing in the world championships. No Filipino has ever done that,” said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.