MANILA – Carlos Yulo advanced to four finals events after the qualification phase of the World Gymnastics Championships at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England on Tuesday (Philippine time).
Yulo ruled his pet event floor exercises in the preliminary round in the hopes of reclaiming his championship and likewise got a shot at defending his vault gold, performed better in the parallel bars, and will even gun for a medal in the all-around category.
He topped the floor with 15.266 points, placed second in the vault with 14.8, wound up fourth in the parallel bars at 15.3, and was also third in the all-around category with a total of 84.664 points, easily making the Top 24 cut.
The 22-year-old Yulo snagged a silver in the parallel bars last year.
Two Japanese, Wataru Tanigawa (84.731) and Daiki Hashimoto (84.665), placed above Yulo.
“It’s a really good result but it’s just qualifying,” he said in an interveiw with the event website. “I’m not boasting, it’s just not the final. If I can do it in the final then maybe I can be satisfied. Right now, I’m really glad but not that satisfied because there are lot of areas that I can improve on, especially pommel horse.”
Meanwhile, Yulo is waitlisted for the rings finals after placing 10th with 14.066 points.
He will make the cut if at least two of the finalists beg off.
Yulo will vie in the all-around finals early Saturday and floor finals later in the day, and the vault and the parallel bars finals on Sunday night, all Philippine time.
“I’m going to try to beat what I did today. I’m going to be more aggressive. There are still areas that aren’t perfect. Every movement still has a deduction but I’ll try my best. My goal is to show my gymnastics to the world,” he said.
Over 500 gymnasts from more than 70 countries are competing in the Worlds that will end November 6.
