3rd FIG Artistic Gymnastics C'ship...YOUNG YULO IN FOUR FINAL EVENTS

PASAY CITY-Drawing strong performances in three events, Karl Eldrew Yulo advanced to the finals of the floor exercise, vault and horizonntal bar on the way to winding up 15th overall in the men's individual around standings of the 3rd FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships late Thursday night.

In front of a hometown crowd a the Manila Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom here inside the Newport World Resorts whose eyes were all focused on him, Yulo, 17, put on a stunning display in the floor exercise reminiscent of his elder brother Carlos Edriel, the 2019 world champion in the event.

He scored 14.233 points in placing second behind AIN athlete Arsenii Dukhno, who topped the qualifiers with 14.500 points, then followed it up in finishing fifth in the vault with an average tally of 13.750 points in two attempts.

With his entire family out in full force, led by his older brother Carlos plus father Mark and mom Angelica, out to inspire him, Eldrew booked his third apparatus finals in the horizontal bar, placing fifth with 13.70 points.

He looked poised for a fourth finals in the parallel bars, but had a bad dismount on the apparatus, falling on his butt, incurring a 1.434-point penalty to drag him down to 28th spot 12.666 points in the meet sponsored by the Office of the President, Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.

Coupled with his scores in the pommel horse (11.333), good for 58th place, and rings (12.20, 27th), Yulo totalled 78.332 points to secure 15th place in the individual all-around overall standings and made it to the finals of the taxing event today, Saturday.

Together with the all-around scores of Batang Pinoy National Championships standouts CJ Pernia (64.40) Hilarion Palles III (60.831), who barely had two weeks of training, the host squad placed 24th with 143.962 points out of 36 entries in the meet also supported by Newport World Resorts and Milo.

Scheduled to play late Friday night was the PH girls squad composed by Elisabeth Antone, Sabina Tayag, Maxine Bondoc and Jellian Bantilan in the tournament organized by the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines and sanctioned by the International Gymnastics Federation, known by its French acronym FIG.

"Natupad yun aking wish, but my job is still not finished. So gagalingan ko pa at give my 100 percent in all the finals I am entered," said Yulo after fulfillling his targets in the all-around qualifiers.

The budding gymnastics star was moved that his entire family, including the eldest Joriel, Carlos and the youngest Aiza, were around to provide him the much-needed morale boost.

"Unang-una sa lahat nagpapasalamat ako kay Lord na binigyan niya ako ng ganitong blessing at tulad ng ginawa ng whole family ko kay kuya Caloy (the elder Yulo's nickname) sa 2019 SEA Games, ngayon naman ako naman ang sinuportahan nila," he said.