Caloy ready for SEA Games

World vault titleholder Caloy Yulo ended his final competition at the 76th Japan Artistic Gymnastics Individual All-Around Championships in the Tokyo Municipal Gymnasium, Shibuya, last weekend before plunging into action in a bold quest for seven gold medals at the SEA Games in Hanoi next month.

Yulo, 22, heads a Philippine cast of nine males and nine females in the artistic events set May 13 to 16. There will be nine entries in rhythmic on May 18 and 19 and seven in aerobic on May 21 and22. A total of 14 gold medals are at stake in artistic, five in aerobic and two in rhythmic. The competitions will be held at the Quan Ngua Sports Palace in Hanoi.

Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion confirmed yesterday the recent All-Around Championships will be Yulo’s last competition before the SEA Games. The event drew 83 competitors, all from Japan except Yulo and 30 made it to the final last Sunday. Yulo qualified for the final as the No. 13 seed, finishing first in vault with 15.2 points and second place went to Teppei Miwa at a distant 14.866. He finished fifth in floor and was in a three-way tie for sixth in parallel bars. But Yulo was a distant 55th in pommel horse, 21st in rings and 39th in horizontal bar. Japan’s Daiki Hashimoto ran away with the gold. The 20-year-old Juntendo University star bagged golds in the all-around and horizontal bar at the Tokyo Olympics last year.

“Caloy didn’t do well in pommel horse and rings,” said Carrion. “But in the final, he improved to No. 11 from No. 13 and according to coach Mune (Kugimiya), he did well. Caloy had the highest score in vault. The competition was only for the all-around. No individual events and only 30 made it to the final with Caloy one of them. Caloy’s still struggling in pommel horse and rings because of his injury in the chest area. He’s getting ready for the SEA Games.”

Kugimiya said Yulo is aiming for seven gold medals in Hanoi which means topping the all-around, vault, parallel bars, floor, pommel horse, rings and horizontal bar. It’s a doable goal as Yulo took two gold and five silver medals at the 2019 SEA Games. The gold medals were from the all-around and floor. At the World Championships in Kiyatyushu last October, Yulo struck gold in vault, took silver in parallel bars and wound up fifth in floor.

Carrion recently signed an agreement with Japanese Ambassador Kazuhiko Koshikawa for the Japanese government to donate about P7 million in aid for a new gymnastics training center in Calamba, Laguna. The agreement was inked at the Ambassador’s residence in Forbes Park and no less than International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) president Morinari Watanabe witnessed the signing. The center will be equipped with complete gymnastics apparatus. Watanabe was re-elected as FIG president in Turkey last November. Carrion was voted to the FIG Council as one of five members representing the Asian Gymnastics Union. She was No. 2 in the voting among eight Asian contenders and only a ballot behind topnotcher Al Mullah Saqr of Kuwait. Last March, the GAP inaugurated the MVP Sports Foundation Gymnastics Center in Intramuros with support from PSC, POC and MVPSF.