PARIS (Via PLDT Home)—Carlos Yulo begins his Olympic quest for glory on Wednesday in the all-around gymnastics competition at the Bercy Arena.
But temper you expectations, folks.
The all-around ain’t Yulo’s strongest suit.
“He will not win,” bluntly said Gymnastics’ Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.
“But he will give it his all,” added Carrion.
While the Filipino gymnast is expected to face stiff competition from a strong field of Chinese and Japanese athletes, including a Filipino-British darkhorse, the event serves as a warm-up for his floor exercise and vault finals.
“But in the exercise and vault, that’s where he is strongest,” said Carrion of Yulo, who was so focused on the two competitions that he forgot his accreditation ID at the Athletes’ Village when he went for training, forcing the gymnastics’ chief to secure him a new one.
Daiki Hashimoto of Japan aims to become the third consecutive Japanese all-around champion, following in the footsteps of Sawao Kato and Kohei Uchimura. Kato achieved the feat in 1968 and 1972, before Uchimura replicated it in 2012 and 2016.
Shinnosuke Oka is another Japanese contender in the all-events, topped by Boheng Zhang of China in the qualifying, with compatriot Ruoteng Xiao coming at fourth.
Zhang had a qualifying score of 88.597, against Yulo’s 83.631.
Oka scored 86.865, Hashimoto 85.064, Xiao 84.898 and Fil-British Jake Jarman 84.897.
Also in the mix in the finals are Great Britain’s Joe Fraser, Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev and Illia Kovtun, Italians Yumin Abbadini and Mario Macchiati, Americans Frederick Richard and Paul Juda, Swiss Matteo Giubellini and Florian Langenegger, Hungarian Krisztofer Meszaros, Australia’s Jesse Moore, the Netherland’s Casimir Schmidt and Frank Rijken, Kazakh Milad Karimi, Brazil’s Diogo Soares, Canada’s Felix Dolci and Rene Cournoyer, and Germany’s Nils Dunkel.
“Caloy is relaxed and happy,” said Carrion. “Let’s wish him luck.”
