Carlos Yulo overcame an early stumble to finish a respectable 12th in the individual all-around finals of men’s artistic gymnastics in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Wednesday at the Bercy Arena (early Thursday in Manila).
The Filipino gymnast got off to a horror start as he stumbled upon his dismount from the pommel horse in the first rotation, leading to a score of only 11.900.
But he made up for it immediately in the second rotation, when he scored 13.933 in the rings followed by a strong 14.766 in the vault, one of his favorite apparatus.
Yulo then scored 14.500 in the parallel bars and a 13.600 in the horizontal bar, capped by a 14.333 in the floor exercise for a total of 83.032.
His total score was 3.800 behind the total of eventual gold medalist Oka Shinnosuke of Japan, who totaled 86.832. China’s Zhang Boheng (86.599) and Xiao Ruoteng (86.364) claimed silver and gold.
It was a thrilling finish, with Zhang having a chance to catch Oka at the top as he performed last on the horizontal bar. However, his score of 14.633 wasn’t quite enough to dislodge the Japanese gymnast.
Oka’s triumph made up for the subpar performance of defending champion Daiki Hashimoto, who finished sixth.
Though Yulo did not medal, he did gain momentum heading into the final of the floor exercise on August 3, and the vault on August 4.
