Yulo vs Yulo?
They call Carlos Yulo the Golden Boy of gymnastics—and of Philippine sports.
“Golden Brothers” has a nice ring to it, too.
Mark Andrew Yulo, father of Carlos and Karl Eldrew, thinks that’s bound to happen soon—and he says it wouldn’t be far-fetched that the brothers would eventually face off against each other.
“Their talents all fall under one flag but they’ll really face off in the future. That’ll be nice,” Mark Andrew told the Inquirer from the sidelines of the 2025 Artistic Gymnastics Junior World Championships at Newport World Resorts on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s okay whether one gets gold or the other becomes second, it’ll feel the same. They’re brothers.”
Karl Eldrew, however, hopes that when the time comes to represent the flag with Carlos, they will win as teammates.
“It will happen,” he said of the two potentially clashing on the international stage.
“But I hope [we can compete] as a team,” he added, after he ended up with 78.731 points to finish eighth in the all-around finals.
“I’m thinking more about being teammates because in these past three Asian Championships, I had no teammates, so it was sad. But now that I have a team, it’s a good feeling.”
Carlos is currently on his own sabbatical, taking care of his body and opting out of the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
The Yulo patriarch already has in mind which tournaments his sons will potentially compete in against each other.
“It might happen in a lot of stages; there’s the SEA Games, Asian Games, Olympics, maybe even the World Championships,” Mark Andrew said. “They’ll be together and they’ll meet each other next year. It’ll be a good scene.”
Karl Eldrew, however, is more focused on the current tournament. While he missed out on the all-around podium, he qualified for three other finals and will gun for medals in the next two days.
He is expected to go for a lower difficulty target in his three finals to protect a tweaked right ankle, but he vows to hunt down medals in front of home fans.
“I hurt myself earlier during my vault routine,” Karl Eldrew told reporters after begging off for a few minutes to ice his ankle. “There won’t be much difference, but I’ll clean my routines to achieve a silver, bronze or whatever else.”
“[My ankle] started to hurt when I started jumping. In my triple twist during the vault, I took a dip landing. It still hurts a bit, but we’re Filipinos; if the fight’s not over, we’ll keep going.”
Karl Eldrew will vie for the floor exercise gold on Sunday. He entered the finals with the second-best score.
