Carlos Yulo became the second Filipino to earn a slot to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Yulo placed 16th in the All-Around qualifying event of the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships men’s finals qualifiers in Stuttgart, Germany.
He joins pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, who made it after getting ranked no. 10 in the world.
According results released online by the organizers, the 19-year-old Yulo tallied 82.164 points.
Two Russians, Nikita Nagornyy, who totalled 87.333 points and Artur Dalaloyan, who had 86.531, led the 24 qualifiers.
Also making it are Xiao Ruoteng (China) with 85.831; Kaya Kazuma (Japan) with 85.731; and Sun Wei (China) with 84.899.
Japanese coach Munehiro Kugiyama, who has been training Yulo for the last four years, confirmed Yulo’s qualification following talks with Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.
“Caloy performed beautifully and he is no. 1 in the list in as much as Russia, China and Japan already qualified in Doha Qatar last year,” said Kugiyama.
Also listed for the Olympics are Petro Pakhniuk (Ukraine) with 84.598; Lee Chih Kai (Taipei) with 84.48; and Oleg Verniaiev (Ukraine) with 84.299.
Since February, Yulo has been making efforts to reach the Olympics when he made it to the floor exercise finals of the 2019 World Cup of Gymnastics Qualifiers in Melbourne, Australia.
At that time, Yulo placed third in the men’s artistic gymnastics qualifying round of the floor exercises.
He finished his routines with a score of 14.133 as Yulo joined seven others in the medal round.
Turkey’s Ahmet Onder topped the routines with 14.266 points, followed at second by Rayderley Zapata of Spain with 14.225 points.
Yulo shared third and fourth with Korea’s Hansel Kim, who also scored 14.133 points.
Japan’s Hibiki Ayarasshiki is also a contender for a podium with a score close to Yulo’s at 14.100.
British gymnast Dominick Cunningham was a close sixth at 14.066.
Dutch entry Cassimir Schmidt also reached the finals with Australian Christopher Remke.
Yulo has been training in Japan to start preparing for a series of Olympic qualifiers.