Carlos Edriel Yulo resumes drive for Olympic slot

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ Carlos Edriel Yulo sets out to gain outright entry to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as he competes in the World Championships slated Oct. 6 to 14 in Stuttgart, Germany.

The 19-year-old Yulo needs to win a medal of any color to automatically make it to the Summer Games and become the first gymnast from Southeast Asia to qualify directly.

Yulo is looking to join pole vaulter EJ Obiena in Tokyo after the latter made the Olympic cut by clearing 5.81 meters in a competition in Chiara, Italy early this month.

Qualifying outright to the Olympics will also make Yulo the favorite in the 30th Southeast Asian Games set in December at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City where he will eye a seven-gold sweep of the floor exercise, vault, parallel bars, high bar, rings, pommel horse and individual all-around events.

Yulo, who snared a historic bronze in the 2018 FIG Artistic World Championships in Doha, Qatar last year and emerged as the first gymnast in the SEA region to do so, has been training in Japan under Japanese coach Munehiro Kugiyama for more than a year now to enhance his Olympic chances.

Already, Yulo has struck gold in the floor exercise of the World Cup Gymnastics in Melbourne, Australia in February this year.