Yulo seeks Olympic berth in Germany World meet

Carlos Edriel Yulo (AFP)

STUTTGART—Carlos Edriel Yulo resumes his 2020 Tokyo Olympics quest late Monday night in the men’s all-around preliminaries of the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle here.

Arriving here early last week from Tokyo together with Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya to adjust to the cool weather, the 19-year-old Yulo was set to perform at 4:30 p.m. (10:30 p.m. Manila time), opening his bid with the horizontal bar among the six apparatus in the men’s event.

This will be followed by his forte, the floor exercise, then the pommel horse, rings and vault, respectively, before capping his day with a stint on the parallel bars.

Yulo hopes to emerge as the country’s second Olympic qualifier after pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena.

The 4-foot-11 dynamo has already shown that he can shine on the world stage, bagging a gold medal in the floor exercise in the opening leg of the FIG Apparatus World Cup in February in Melbourne, Australia.

Competing against the elite of men’s gymnastics, Yulo copped a bronze medal in the same event in the next stop of the World Cup in Doha, Qatar, a month later.

The young boy became the first Filipino gymnast to win a gold medal in the vault event of the prestigious International Junior Gymnastics Championship in Yokohama, Japan, in September 2017.

Both Yulo and Kugimiya declined to be interviewed during their training session last Sunday.

The top 12 finishers in the all-around men’s event will book their spots to the Tokyo Games, while the gold, silver and bronze medalists in each of the individual apparatus will also make it to the quadrennial sports showcase.

Should Yulo flourish, he will see action in the men’s all-around finals on Friday and the apparatus finals scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.