Carlos Yulo snares Doha Worlds bars gold
FILE–The Philippines’ Carlos Yulo competes in the Men’s Floor Final during the 52nd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, in Antwerp, northern Belgium, on October 7, 2023. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP)
Carlos Yulo’s initial plans of scouting the Olympics opposition in the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series yielded two great results that signaled his readiness to go all the way come the Paris Games later this year.
The 4-foot-11 dynamo bagged the gold medal in the parallel bars and picked up the silver in the vault in the Doha meet as he closed out the four-leg tournament over the weekend with a lot of promise going into the final stretch of his preparation for the summer spectacle in the glitzy fashion capital of the world.
Yulo ruled the parallel bars finale with 15.2 points, defeating Hung Yuan Hsi of Chinese Taipei (14.966) and Brazil’s Caio Souza, who settled for third with 14.566 points.
READ: On parallel bars, Carlos Yulo has third shot at Olympic glory
Armenia’s Artur Daytyan, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist, edged Yulo for the vault title following a 15.166 jump as the Filipino ace tallied 15.06.
Yulo skipped the Cairo, Egypt, and Cottbus, Germany, legs of the World Cup and then landed outside of the finals of the vault and parallel bars in the Baku, Azerbaijan, meet in March where he copped a bronze medal in the floor exercise.
Overall, the two-time world champion and Tokyo Olympian increased his medal haul in the world cup with five golds, four silvers and six bronzes.
READ: Carlos Yulo has deep bag of tricks for Paris Olympics bid
Meanwhile, for Levi Jung-Ruivivar, the Olympics was just a distant dream until a silver medal finish in the women’s uneven bars put her in the Games.
“It definitely was not easy,’’ posted Jung-Ruivivar in a reply to well-wishers on her Instagram after clinching the Olympic seat in the romantic French capital.
Writing PH history
History was rewritten as soon as the Filipino-American bagged the slot over the weekend, joining fellow gymnasts Yulo and Aleah Finnegan as qualifiers.
It’s going to be the biggest Philippine gymnastics squad in the Olympics since the 1968 Mexico City Games where Ernesto Beren and Norman Henson saw action.
Jung-Ruivivar, a 17-year-old from Los Angeles, barely made it to the uneven bars finals after finishing eighth and last among the qualifiers, but turned her fate around by tallying 13.633 to snatch her first medal in the World Cup series on the way to the Olympics.
Rower Joanie Delgaco was the recent addition to the Philippines’ growing list of Olympic qualifiers after placing fourth in the women’s single sculls final of the Asian and Oceania Continental Qualification Regatta on Sunday in Chungju, South Korea.
The PH delegation already has pole vaulter EJ Obiena, boxers Eumir Marcial, Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas, and weightlifters Elreen Ando, John Febuar Ceniza and Vanessa Sarno aside from the three gymnasts and now Delgaco.
