Carlos Yulo finished with the silver medal for the second consecutive edition of the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2023, scoring a huge 85.930 on Thursday at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
To provide context, Yulo’s score, which stood tall before the Japanese gymnasts took the floor, would have placed him on the podium in the last two editions of the Worlds.
Yulo surprised everyone with an impressive 13.266 on the pommel horse, an apparatus he usually struggles with, to kick off the morning session.
The 23-year-old World champion then continued with his usual strong performances, including a 15.066 on the parallel bars, securing his place in his fifth consecutive Worlds later this year in Antwerp, Belgium. This achievement brings him a step closer to another Olympic berth for Paris 2024.
However, 2019 Junior Worlds all-around champion Oka Shinnosuke turned the competition into a wild one by also scoring above 85. The 19-year-old surpassed Yulo and ultimately earned a whopping 86.065, claiming the Asian title in his debut in the senior level.
Another Japanese gymnast, Kitazono Takeru, almost pushed Yulo to the bronze position with an equally impressive score of 85.431.
Yulo’s performance contributed to the Philippine team’s finish in the team event. With the squad’s strong performance on the vault, they improved to a seventh-place finish with a total score of 237.193.
They narrowly missed qualifying for Worlds by just two spots, with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan securing the berths.
China, Japan, and Korea have already secured automatic qualification for the Worlds in the team event based on their performance in the previous edition in Liverpool.
