Carlos Yulo dazzles in floor for second gold at Asian Championships

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 KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)

Carlos Yulo burst into the limelight with a hair-raising act in the floor exercise in a world championship atmosphere.

The Filipino bundle of energy hasn’t changed one bit since that gold-medal feat in the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Yulo, powered by his desire to medal in the coming Paris Olympics, mastered the field in the men’s floor anew for a second gold at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

READ: Carlos Yulo wins elusive all-around gold at Asian Championships

After snaring the individual all-around title earlier, Yulo compiled 14.933 points in the floor exercise final, defeating Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi, who assembled 14.6 for the silver medal and bronze medalist Yang Yanzhi of China (14.2).

John Ivan Cruz, the Southeast Asian Games gold medalist in the floor, nearly made it to the podium with Yulo after posting 13.966 points, good for fourth place.

Yulo ruled the floor in the Asian champs for the third straight year after topping it in 2022 Doha and 2023 Singapore.

READ: On parallel bars, Carlos Yulo has third shot at Olympic glory

The two-time world champion who also won the vault in the 2021 world championships finally captured the individual all-around at the continental level after back-to-back silver finishes the past two editions.

The 24-year-old Tokyo Olympian from Leveriza, Manila likewise figured in the final of the still rings, but landed out of medal range at sixth with 13.533 points.

Still, Yulo remains on track to duplicating his three golds each in Doha and Singapore and could even surpass it when he tackles three more apparatus in the final of the vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.