LED by former two-time world champion Carlos Edriel Yulo, the national men’s artistic gymnastics squad will try to go where it has never gone before when it swings into action today in the 10th Artistic Gymnastics Asian Senior Championships at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
Together with Juancho Miguel Besana, Justine Ace de Leon and John Ivan Cruz, Yulo and the other gymnasts are gunning to finish among the top five in the team all-around event to secure a ticket to the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium in September.
The nationals take to the floor at 9:30 a.m. beginning with the pommel horse, followed by the rings, vault, parallel bar, and high bar before winding up at around noon with the floor exercise.
National coach Reyland Capellan, who has been training Besana in Tokyo, Japan shortly after the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games early this month, said the goal is to become the local team to qualify for the world meet.
Although the odds are stacked against them, Capella is banking on Besana and Cruz, who topped the men’s vault and floor exercise, respectively, in the Cambodia Games, to help Yulo in achieving that lofty goal.
Yulo, who bagged three golds and two silvers in last year’s edition in Doha, Qatar, is aiming to secure his fifth straight ticket to the worlds since his debut in the 38th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Doha in 2018 when he won a bronze medal in the floor exercise.
The pint-sized Pinoy phenom is expected to finish among the top eight in the men’s individual all-around, a likely outcome considering that he took the silver in the same event in last year’s Asian competition.
The scores of four athletes in each of the six apparatuses will determine the outcome of the team and individual all-around events and will also serve as the qualifiers of the apparatus finals tomorrow and Sunday.
The national women’s artistic gymnastics composed of Fil-Ams Alea Finnegan, Emma Lauren Malabuyo, Lucia Manzano and Lucia Gutierrez is competing in the women’s team and individual all-around events tomorrow.
With their US national team experience, Finnegan and Malabuyo are just as keen on qualifying for the worlds to represent the Philippines, and, hopefully, all the way to the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.
