MANILA – Filipino gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo failed to land a podium finish in the first of his three medal events in the 2024 Paris Olympics artistic gymnastics event in Paris, France.
Yulo, a two-time Olympian, settled for a 12th place finish in the men’s all-around artistic gymnastics finals on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in the Philippines) at the Bercy Arena.
Yulo struggled in the pommel horse apparatus, finishing with just 11.9 points after falling late in his routine, but managed to bounce back in the rings with 13.933 points.
The Filipino gymnast also had a good performance in vault (14.766), parallel bars (14.500), horizontal bar (13.600), and floor exercise (14.333) to conclude the competition with 83.032 points.
Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka clinched the gold after finishing with 86.832 points, while the Chinese duo of Zhang Boheng (86.599) and Xiao Ruoteng (86.634) ended with silver and bronze, respectively.
Yulo will still have a shot at clinching a medal as he competes in the finals events of the floor exercise on Saturday and vault apparatus on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Filipino boxer Carlo Paalam dazzled his way to the next round in the men’s 57 kg division via a unanimous decision win over Irishman Jude Gallagher in the round-of-16.
Paalam, a silver medal winner in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, relied on his ring smarts to offset Gallagher’s constant pressure, earning a favorable score from the five boxing judges.
With the win, Paalam joined fellow boxer and Olympic silver medalist Nesthy Petecio, along with Aira Villegas, in the next round.
Filipina boxer Hergie Bacyadan, on the other hand, failed to move on in the women’s 75 kg class after bowing to Chinese boxer Li Qian via unanimous decision in the round-of-16 encounter./PN
