Yulo absorbs another heartbreaker

MANILA, Philippines — Caloy Yulo suffered yet another heartbreaker as he blew his golden chances and finished fifth in the event he was heavily favored to win the floor exercise in the 50th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan yesterday.

The 21-year-old Yulo couldn’t sustain the impressive form he showed in the qualifying round where he blew past 102 rivals with a 15.166 result last Wednesday as he bungled his landing from a tumbling pass and went out of bounds.

It cost the Southeast Asian Games gold medalist a critical 0.300 deduction and ended up with a total of 14.566, which was good only for a fifth-place finish.

Had he completed his routine, which had the highest level of difficulty among all eight finalists (6.600), Yulo would have struck gold instead of Italian Nicola Bartolini, who had a 14.800 from 8.600 on execution and 6.200 on the level of difficulty.

Japan’s Minami Kazuki took the silver with a 14.766 while Finland’s Emil Soravuo the bronze with a 14.700.

Korean Ryu Sunghyun was fourth with 14.600.

It was another painful experience for Yulo, who is still reeling from his Tokyo Olympics debacle three months ago when he went home without a medal.

Yulo, however, will have two chances to redeem himself as he plunges back into action in the vault starting at 3:25 p.m. (Philippine time) and parallel bars unfurling 5 p.m. today.

Again, the pocket-sized wonder from Leveriza, Manila will come in the fancied gymnast in the parallel bars after posting the highest score of 15.565 over a field of 96 in the qualifying round.

He will also go for a podium finish in the vault where he was the third-best gymnast, besting 47 others with a 14.808 in the prelims.