Yulo home for the holidays

MANILA, Philippines — Tokyo Olympian Caloy Yulo comes home for the Christmas holidays and will attend the blessing of the new 2,000-square meter Gymnastics Training Center at Victoria corner Basco in Intramuros. The facility, a former warehouse, is now 40 percent finished and comes with a renovation cost of P5 million. The rental is P250,000 a month which PSC will shoulder.

Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion, now in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) president Morinari Watanabe for the Asian Gymnastics Union congress, said Yulo, 21, will visit his family during the holiday break for the first time since the SEA Games in 2019. Yulo, based in Tokyo since 2016, will compete at the 50th FIG World Championships in Kitakyushu, a four-hour train ride from Tokyo, on Oct. 18-24. Nearly 400 gymnasts, including 239 men, from 59 countries are expected to perform but 2019 individual all-around world champion and Tokyo Olympic double bronze medalist Nikita Nagornyy of Russia is not in the list.

Carrion will be back from Tashkent tomorrow then will leave for Kitakyushu to witness the World Championships on Oct. 14. She is scheduled to attend the FIG Congress in Antalya, Turkey, on Oct. 29-31. Carrion has been nominated for election as FIG Board member to represent Asia and the women sector.

Renovation of the center has slowed down as recent rains exposed leaks in the roof. The warehouse is owned by Gloria Lim, who lives in the US and her representatives are coordinating to complete the repairs. “I showed the blueprint of the plans to Mr. Watanabe and he’s very impressed,” said Carrion. The elite, junior and developmental athletes will train in the center equipped with six apparatus for men and four for women plus sports aero and trampoline that cost millions to import by the PSC. A tent will be put up beside the center in the parking lot for rhythmic gymnastics which requires a high ceiling. The main center will include a sports lounge and a 30-person seminar room for judges and coaches and a café for the athletes. The national pool consists of 31 gymnasts, including 10 male with 11 local and three foreign coaches.

“Our equipment is deteriorating at Rizal so we’ll transport everything to the center for proper maintenance and care,” she said. “We’re hoping the private sector will support the center as we’re still looking for sponsors to finance the renovation. It will be a world-class gym and when Caloy gets back for Christmas, it will be good to come home to a nice gym and will also try to get sponsors for our air-conditioning. It was actually an abandoned warehouse and we were initially being charged P500,000 rental a month but we were able to negotiate it down.”