Carlos Yulo sizzles in floor, vault to kick off Paris Olympics bid

Carlos Yulo began his redemption tour with stellar showings in his two pet events at the men's artistic gymnastics individual qualification in the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Bercy Arena on Saturday (Philippine time). 

The 24-year-old Filipino gymnast started out strong in his favorite floor exercise, collecting 14.766 points to initially place second behind Jake Jarman of Great Britain, who had 14.966.

Yulo, who once ruled the floor event at the 2019 World Championship, redeemed himself from a lackluster floor performance in Tokyo Olympics three years ago, where he only managed to score 13.566 points to bow out of contention early. 

Yulo also impressed in his vault routine, nailing a total of 14.683 points anchored on 14.800 from his first jump and 14.566 in the second. Vault is also one of Yulo's pet events, capturing gold and silver medals in the 202 1and 2019 SEA Games, respectively, while ruling the same event during the 2021 World Championships. 

However, the Filipino wunderkind had difficulties with pommel horse (13.066), rings (13.000), parallel bars (14.533), and horizontal bar (13.466) to fail to enter the final round of these four apparatuses. 

Yulo's fate in floor, vault, and all-around will be determined once all gymnasts are done with their routines. The third and last subdivision for the other gymnasts is set at around 2 a.m. on Sunday (Philippine time). 

READ MORE | Philippines at the 2024 Paris Olympics

—JKC, GMA Integrated News