Carlos Yulo unable to defend title in World Championships, settles for 5th in floor exercise

It was another heartbreaker for the Philippines’ Carlos Yulo.

The young Filipino gymnast was unable to defend his world title after he fell short in floor exercise finals of the 50th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships on Saturday in Kitakyushu, Japan.

The 21-year-old Yulo scored 14.566 built on 8.266 in execution and 6.600 in difficulty while also incurring a penalty of 0.30 after an off-balance landing from one of his moves to finish at fifth place.

This setback came just months after his no-medal finish in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Nicola Bartolini of Italy bagged the gold with 14.800 while home bet Kazuki Minami of Japan (14.766) and Emil Soravuo of Finland (14.700) settled for silver and bronze, respectively.

Yulo already has two medals under his belt in the same competition, bagging a bronze in the 2018 edition while delivering a golden finish in 2019, where he became the first Filipino to achieve such a feat.

He had rousing performances last Friday to open his campaign, finishing at the top spot of both the floor exercise and parallel bars at the end of the qualification round, where he only participated in three disciplines. He was in third place in the vault qualifying.

The 4-foot-11 dynamo will continue his bid on Sunday, October 24, when he vies for more medals in the championship round of parallel bars and vault.

—JMB, GMA News