Carlos Yulo during the men’s all around gymnastics qualification. INQUIRER PHOTO/FRANCIS OCHOA
TOKYO—Carlos Yulo was at a loss for words Saturday night after failing to qualify for the floor exercise final, the gymnastics event where he was favored to win a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics here.
After some time, he found a few that described how he felt—although he might have been speaking for a hope-harboring country as well.
“Masakit po eh. Masakit. Masakit po talaga (It hurt. It hurt. It really hurt),” he said before walking out of Ariake Gymnastics center here.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said in Filipino.
“I came here really prepared. I did my best,” Yulo added. “Maybe it just wasn’t meant for me.”
Yulo fumbled a landing early in his routine and wound up scoring low on execution to finish with 13.566 points.
Yulo, the reigning world champion in floor exercise, finished 44th in the event.
Yulo made it to the vault final, however, placing sixth in the preliminaries with 14.712.
Officials had pinned their hopes on Yulo delivering the first Olympic gold for the Philippines via his pet floor exercise while finishing at the podium in vault and the parallel bars.