MANILA – Caloy Edriel Yulo became the first Filipino to score a gold medal in the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships after ruling the men’s floor exercise final at the Hans Martin Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart, Germany late Saturday night.
The 19-year-old prodigy scored a total of 15.3 points, just 0.1 point ahead of Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat.
While both Yulo and Dolgopyat got the same score in the execution part (8.8), Yulo prevailed with a better difficulty score (6.5) as he performed a full-twisting double layout, piked double front-half, 3 1/2 to barani, and a triple twist dismount.
Dolgopyat did a Zapata (barani in, full out), 2 1/2 to double-twisting front; double-double; and half-in, half-out in his own routine.
China’s Xiao Ruoteng won the bronze medal.
Yulo earlier secured a slot to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after finishing 18th in the all-around qualifiers with 82.164 points last Monday (Oct. 7).
On Oct. 11, he joined the elite company in placing the 10th overall in the men’s all-around after scoring a personal best of 84.048 points.
“First time ko pong maka-iskor ng 84-plus kaya talagang mataas po iyon. Talagang masaya ko dahil duon (It was my first time to score 84-plus, that’s really high. I’m really happy for that),” Yulo said.
It was also a dramatic rise in the event for Yulo, whose stint here is funded by the Philippine Sports Commission, after merely finishing 23rd out of 24 finalists with a score of 77.464 points in the previous edition of the blue-ribbon competition held in Doha, Qatar last year.
“The performance of Caloy (Yulo’s nickname) is really outstanding considering that those in the top 10 are Russians, Chinese, Japanese and Americans, who are the best in gymnastics,” Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion said.
