Carlos Yulo is scheduled to return to World Cup action this week in Doha, the scene of the finest moment in the teenage Filipino star’s blossoming career in Artistic Gymnastics.
The 19-year-old was one of the breakout names of 2018, winning his country’s first world championship medal – a bronze in the Floor exercise – in the Qatari capital.
He followed that up with a bronze and then a gold in the first two events of the 2018-2020 FIG Individual Apparatus World Cup series, in Cottbus (GER) and Melbourne (AUS).
He missed the third World Cup event in Baku (AZE) last week as he was recovering from a chest injury, so will be happy to get back to action in Doha.
“A lot of things happened (at the world championships in Doha), there were a lot of ups and downs, but the good thing is I learned a lot of things I didn’t know before, mainly from my mistakes,” Yulo said.
“It was unimaginable (to win a medal), I really didn’t expect that. I was so happy to get one. The reason for my success was my training because I trained a lot. Repeating, repeating, repeating, every day.” An added incentive for the gymnasts on the Individual Apparatus World Cup circuit this year is that, for the first time, the series is offering the chance of direct qualification for the Olympic Games.
While Yulo hopes to qualify for the All-around event at the Tokyo 2020 Games through the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart in October, he knows his World Cup scores provide an important back-up.
“I’m trying not to think about the Olympics too much but hoping that I can compete there,” he said. “I’m not expecting much (from the World Cup in Doha) but I am aiming for a good performance and a medal.”
