Carlos Yulo claims parallel bars gold in Baku World Cup
FILE – The Philippines’ Carlos Edriel Yulo competes during the Men’s Parallel Bars final at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, northern England on November 6, 2022. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines-Carlos Edriel Yulo seized the gold medal in the parallel bars of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series in Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday.
Yulo topped the apparatus, his second gold medal in the ongoing four-leg World Cup, after failing to book a finals spot in the floor exercise.
The former world champion got 15.400 from the judges in nipping Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun, who settled for the silver with 15.366 points. Cameron-Lie Bernard of France placed third with a total of 14.600 while Curran Phillips, the pace-setter in the qualifying round, managed only fifth (14.500).
Carlos Yulo 🇵🇭 on Parallel Bars: Clear hip to one rail handstand, Healy out. Stutz. Healy. Front flip. Front straddle somie to his hands. Bhavsar. Tippelt. Diamidov. Double front tuck half out, stuck! Virtuosity from Yulo! If anyone can beat Kovtun, it's him! 15.4 — leader! pic.twitter.com/Qe08Pq7Fbc
— FIG (@gymnastics) March 11, 2023
Kovtun, who was aiming for a seventh consecutive World Cup title, scored 6.6 in terms of difficulty compared to Yulo’s 6.5 points, but the Filipino gymnastics star’s flawless execution netted him a finals-high 8.900.
Yulo missed out on a podium finish in the rings, where he’s the reigning champion in the Southeast Asian Games. He wound up seventh in the apparatus after tallying 14.166 in the qualifying.
Yulo, who snatched the floor exercise gold in the second leg held in Doha, Qatar, will see action in the vault final on Sunday, an event he ruled in the world championships two years ago.
After the Azerbaijan meet, Yulo’s next and final stop is the fourth leg of the World Cup in Cairo on April 27-30.
This year’s World Cup series is a qualifier for the apparatus events in the 2023 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium on Sept. 30-Oct. 8, which offers spots to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
