The Filipino gymnast topped the floor exercise qualifiers with a score of 14.600, utilizing a 5.7 difficulty score and an 8.900 for execution. He also advanced to the parallel bars final by ranking sixth with 14.266 points.
Carlos, 26, secured a spot in the vault final on Monday despite failing to land his first attempt and hitting the mat during a challenging qualification session.
“It was so challenging today. This is not what I expected from my preparation. It didn’t really come out today,” he told POC Average.
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Carlos Yulo reacts after winning gold at the Olympics Paris on Aug. 4, 2024. Photo by Reuters |
Carlos noted that while his pommel horse routine executed well, he made an incorrect grab on the vault attempt.
Although disappointed, he expressed relief at escaping injury, acknowledging that such a fall could end a gymnast’s career.
He also fell during his horizontal bar routine while attempting a skill he had not performed in years, a move he brought back to challenge himself and let him see things from a different angle.
“It’s just really trial and error. And at the end of the day I still did what’s the best that I could do,” he added.
He finished 10th in the individual all-around standings with 75.465 points.
His younger brother, Karl Eldrew Yulo, 18, also advanced to the finals after placing fourth in the floor exercise qualifiers with 13.966 points. Eldrew placed ninth in the horizontal bar with 13.433 points but advanced due to the tournament rule limiting finals qualification to two gymnasts per National Olympic Committee.
Eldrew finished eighth in the individual all-around with 77.264 points, edging out his older brother’s total score. He praised the national team’s overall safety and performance while acknowledging his own missed opportunities on the pommel horse, rings and parallel bars.
“I feel grateful because we are all safe and of course I am also super proud of what happened earlier,” he told POC Average.
Carlos also expressed pride in his younger brother’s emergence.
“He’s growing, I’m really proud of what he’s doing, grateful to be with him in this competition and hoping to be with him in other competitions,” he told Inquirer.
SEA Games gold medalist Miguel Besana also advanced to a final, finishing fourth in the vault qualifiers with 13.933 points. The Philippine gymnastics squad completed the team event in sixth place with a combined score of 232.093 points.