By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Carlos Yulo expectedly exhibited the brilliance that earned him two historic gold medals in the Paris Games last year and advanced to the finals of the two events in the 2025 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships on Monday, Oct. 20, in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The 2024 Paris Olympics double gold medalist topped the vault after scoring 14.750, and is running second in the floor exercise with 14.566 behind Jake Jarman, a British gymnast of Filipino descent who posted 14.700.
The last batch of entries in the floor exercise is still competing at press time.
Interestingly, Yulo won his two Olympics golds in the floor exercise and vault.
Yulo, a two-time world champion, first scored an impressive 14.900 on his first vault, and 14.600 on his second to lead the qualifiers that include fellow world champion Artur Davtyan of Armenia (14.566), Ukraine’s Nazar Chepurnyi (14.316), Daniel Marinov (14.266), Italy’s Tommaso Brugnami (14.249), China’s Huang Mingqi (14.183), Japan’s Kazuki Minami (14.050), and Mukhammadzhon Iakubov (14.033).
The men’s floor exercise final is set on Friday, Oct. 24, while the men’s vault final is on Saturday, Oct. 25.
Yulo is only competing in two apparatus after disclosing that he is still recuperating from a wrist injury.
Meanwhile, Filipina Olympians Aleah Finnegan and Emma Malabuyo, Haylee Garcia, and Yulo’s younger sister Elaiza, are slated to compete in the women’s qualification on Tuesday, Oct. 21.
