MANILA – Gymnast Carlos Yulo became the second Filipino to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He reached the finals of the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships on Tuesday at the Hanns Martin Schleyer in Stuttgart, Germany.
The 19-year-old Yulo captured the 2020 Tokyo Olympic spot after placing 18th out of 160 participants in the all-around performances to advance to the finale this Friday.
Yulo had a total score of 82.164 points. His best output came from the floor exercise, where he earned 14.633 points.
“He performed beautifully,” said Philippine gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion in an interview with ABS CBN News. “The whole place, a crowd of about 30,000, applauded him.”
Other qualifiers are Manrique Larduet (Cuba), Ludovico Edalli (Italy), Milad Karimi (Kazakhstan), Loris Frasca (France), Robert Tvorogal (Lithuania), Alexander Shatilov (Israel), Ferhat Arican (Turkey), Artur Davtyan (Armenia), David Huddleston (Bulgaria), Bart Deurloo (Netherlands), and Daniel Corral (Mexico).
The 4-foot-11 Yulo became the second Filipino athlete to qualify in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena earned a qualification on Sept. 4 in Chiara, Italy after clearing the mark of 5.81 meters./PN
