Yulo an all-around longshot in first shot at medal
Carlos Yulo has three chances of claiming a medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics, and his initial shot comes in the men’s artistic gymnastics all-around final on Wednesday at Bercy Arena in what could well be a preview of the podium encounter in the vault and floor exercise this weekend.
There’s a narrow window for the Filipino two-time world champion to pull it off in the all-around though, having placed ninth in the qualification, safe enough to secure a spot in the top 24.
But no one is discounting an upset.
“It’s going to be tough in the all-around. But knowing Carlos, he always brings out the best in him on every routine,’’ said Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion.
Realistically speaking, the Japanese and Chinese are hands down the wise-money bets in the six-apparatus event with China’s Zhang Boheng the heavy favorite.
Zhang wound up better than the Japanese tandem of Shinnosuke Oka and Daiki Hashimoto in the qualification phase while another Chinese in Xiao Ruoteng placed fourth.
Hashimoto is looking to become just the third Japanese to capture back-to-back gold medals in the event after his triumph in 2021 Tokyo.
The confidence level likewise went sky-high for Hashimoto following their team’s all-around triumph over China on Monday with the United States bagging the bronze medal.
What’s left for the taking as far as Yulo is concerned are the finals in the floor exercise (Aug. 3) and vault (Aug. 4).
He was the world champion in the floor in 2019 Stuttgart, Germany and won the vault in the 2021 worlds held in Kitakyushu, Japan.
During the qualifications over the weekend, Yulo compiled 83.631 points in the all-around after finishing second in the floor and sixth in the vault.
He missed the medal rounds in the parallel bars, pommel horse, rings and horizontal bar.
A bevy of possible contenders are also in the mix—Great Britain’s Joe Fraser, Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev and Illia Kovtum, Italians Yumin Abbadini and Mario Macchiati and Americans Frederick Richard and Paul Juda, among them.
