Yulo climbs to No. 1 in floor exercise
Carlos Yulo and Olympian Rayderley Zapata of Dominican Republic shared the spotlight as No. 1 ranked gymnasts in the floor exercise apparatus based on the latest rankings released by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
Yulo, who is bound to compete in next year’s Tokyo Olympics, and Zapata scored identical 70 points based on their performances in elite tournaments since 2018.
Yulo gained 20 points each after winning bronze at the 43rd Turnier Der Meister FIG Individual Apparatus World Cup in Cottbus, Germany in 2018 as well as at the 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Doha, Qatar.
He also garnered 30 points with his gold-medal feat at the 2019 Melbourne World Cup in Australia.
Russia’s Kirill Prokopev came in third with 64 points, followed by Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat and Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi with 60 and 52 points.
Completing the Top 10 were Finland’s Emil Soravuo (48), Korea’s Ryu Sunghyun (48), Japan’s Kazuki Minami (46), Netherland’s Casimir Schmidt (46) and Great Britain’s Hayden Skinner (40).
The 20-year-old Yulo made history in 2019 as the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to win the gold medal at the world artistic gymnastics in the floor exercise, earning him an Olympic berth.
He is tipped as one of the favorites to give the country the elusive Olympic gold medal along with fellow qualifiers pole vaulter EJ Obiena and boxers Eumir Marcial and Irish Magno.
Yulo is currently training in Japan despite the Olympics being moved to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.