Carlos Yulo was almost there, close to snaring at least one gold medal in the 51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool. Alas, it was not meant to be as he settled for a silver in the vault and bronze in the parallel bars when the tournament ended Sunday night (Monday morning).
The 22-year-old Yulo was unable to stick his landings in his two attempts in the vault where he was defending champion, but still had a great average score to make it to first place in the vault event.
But then Armenia’s Artur Davtyan took his turn at the mat, notching two 15-plus scores to average 15.050, relegating Yulo to the silver medal.
With his silver-medal finish, Yulo said he values the experiences that he learned from his performances.
“Puro lessons iyung nakuha ko this time, kahit hindi man ako nakakuha ng (gold) medals. Siyempre, disappointed ako. Pero wala na po akong magagawa, ganu’n talaga,” said Yulo on Zoom after Davtyan became Armenia’s first world gymnastics’ champion.
Davtyan went on to become the second Armenian to stand on the podium in as many days following Harutyun Merdinyan’s pommel horse bronze on Saturday.
“Sobrang saya pa rin po ako kasi iyung vault ko pa kasi, bago lang siya. Hindi po kapareho ng Dragulescu. Pero super-happy ako na naitayo ko iyun,” added Yulo, who normed 14.95 points, with better execution in his second effort after getting a 0.1 point penalty on his first attempt.
Later, China’s Zou Jingyuan simply outscored Yulo with a near-flawless display to claim the parallel bars gold.
The 24-year-old Zou earned his third World Championship title, won with a score of 16.166 as he made a bid to raise the difficulty of his routine.
Zou placed ahead of Lukas Dauser, who collected 15.5 points and the silver that was Germany’s first medal of the week.
Yulo then earned the parallel bar bronze after tallying 15.366 points.
“May ganu’n times po na lumalabas sa practice ko na para akong mago-gold. Pero wala na ako magagawa sa kinalabasan ng performance. Kailangan ko na lang tanggapin at mag-move on sa mga next na competition. I’m really grateful na nakapasok ako sa ibang apparatus. Lalo na sa vault, ” said Yulo, who added that he never expected to make it this far in the parallel bars.
That’ because he felt that his rivals had far better performances than him, like Turkish gymnast Arican Ferhat, the bronze medallist in the Tokyo Olympics.
Ferhat settled for fourth behind Yulo with 15.066.
“Hindi ko expect na magme-medal ako sa pa-bar kasi ang mga nakalaro ko po ay mga legends,” added Yulo, who noted that he has been going against more experienced rivals, who are usually much older than him.
His performances in the second and last day of the finals allowed Yulo to make up for earlier lapses in the men’s all-around and floor exercise finals, where he landed eighth place.