By REYNALD MAGALLON
Unless he changes his mind, Paris Olympics double gold winner Caloy Yulo won’t be around to spearhead the country’s campaign in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games this December in Thailand.
Gymnastic Association of the Philippines President Cynthia Carrion confirmed to Tempo-Manila Bulletin, Saturday, Oct. 18, that the global star has decided to skip the coming biennial game.
“Yes, it is confirmed. Carlos decided that he will not join,” said the GAP executive in a brief text message.
Yulo’s decision also came at the heels of the decision of the SEAG organizing committee to limit participants in artistic gymnastics to only win in one apparatus.
According to Carrion, Yulo decided to opt out of the biennial meet to give his teammates in the national team a chance to shine.
Carrion added that there will be no team event in this year’s edition and each gymnast can only join in two apparatus but can only win gold in one.
A gymnast of the caliber of Yulo, who once completed a five-gold haul during the 2022 edition in Hanoi, certainly has the chance to win in all of the six apparatuses and for that, his camp, deemed it would be wiser to just sit out the Bangkok edition of the SEA Games.
Even with Yulo’s absence, however, Carrion remained optimistic that the Philippine gymnastics team will do well in the biennial meet.
Yulo’s younger brother Eldrew as well as Juancho Besana and John Ivan Cruz are expected to carry the flag for the team. Besana bagged the gold in vault while Cruz ruled the floor exercise the 2023 SEAG in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Yulo focuses on the Worlds
Meanwhile, the focus right now for the 25-year-old dynamo is the World Gymnastics Championships in Jakarta Indonesia especially since he is nursing a wrist injury which he sustained two months before the competition.
Yulo, however, isn’t worried at all as he joins teammates Besana, Cruz and Justine Ace de Leon in the men’s qualification phase at 8:20 p.m. at the Indonesia Arena on Sunday, Oct. 19.
“My goal is to perform beautiful gymnastics, to be really graceful. I want to really show good and graceful gymnastics,” said Yulo.
