MANILA, Philippines — When multi-titled Caloy Yulo landed in Doha, Qatar days before the 9th Senior Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships, there was a strong belief from among those around him that he will strike gold.
And on Friday night, the wunderkind from Leveriza, Manila delivered as expected.
In a dazzling show of force, power and grace, the 22-year-old Yulo blew away the competition in topping his pet event – the floor exercise – for his first gold medal in this annual meet.
It was a dominating performance for the Hanoi Southeast Asian Games quintuple gold medalist as he drew a score of 14.933 with a 6.300 difficulty and an 8.633 in execution.
South Korean Kim Hansol and Chinese Yang Jiaxing tried to put up a fight by coming through with decent routines themselves.
But they were reduced to afterthoughts by Yulo’s magnificence and settled for the silver and bronze with identical 14.333s.
The feat came a day after Yulo snared a breakthrough medal in the Asian and world level in the individual all-around – a silver.
It was a silver that shone like gold for Yulo as it announced his ambitious bid to the World Championships slated in October this year in Liverpool, England as well as the 2024 Paris Olympics that he will be a medal contender not just in one or two apparatuses, but more.
“That silver showed he (Yulo) has more chances in winning more medals no just in the Worlds but also in Paris,” said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.
Yulo came close to snatching another medal in rings on that same night but understandably fell short since he is still a work in progress on this apparatus.
But he would have two chances for two more golds, or least medals, as he was performing at press time in vault and parallel bars where he is a world champion and a silver winner, respectively, in Kitakyushu, Japan last year.
And you could just sense that same undeniable feeling that destiny is once again calling on the young Filipino gymnast.
Date: June 19, 2022 | By: Joey Villar | Newspaper: Philippine Star | Source: https://www.philstar.com/sports/2022/06/19/2189390/yulo-strikes-gold-doha?fbclid=IwAR29wNxaM72yrlO-KnfX52lPRrSyorWNS4Ir66GjB3w3tbca52B-jh91thM
