After missing on a back-to-back championship on floor, Caloy Yulo made sure to conquer one back. And it is in the apparatus where he almost won an Olympic medal.
The 21-year-old wasted nothing this time and captured the gold and the title after winning the vault final at the 2021 World Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the Kitakyushu General Gymnasium, Kitakyushu City, Japan, on Sunday.
Yulo improved on his scores from the qualifying and ended with a huge 14.916 on the average of his two vaults.
The championship also ensured he continued his streak of winning a medal in the Worlds for three straight editions as of now.
Yulo leaned on his two signature vaults to propel him to his first-ever international vault title.
The Ermita-born standout started off with another polished performance of the Kasamatsu double full which was propelled by an execution score of 9.200, as it has a difficulty score of only 5.600. The first vault thus merited a score of 14.800.
However, his chances shot up with his powerful take on Dragulescu. Despite having the same D score as the previous vault, masterful execution of the second saw him take an enormous E score of 9.433, en route to a massive 15.033 total score.
Hometown bet Yonekura Hidenobu took the silver with 14.866, with his first vault — the highest on D score at 6.000 — coming in as second-highest overall at 15.000. Israel’s Andrey Medvedev completed the podium with 14.649.
Yulo previously pocketed bronze in the All-Japan Championships just the previous month and the silver at the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
