File photo of the country’s favored gymnast Karl Eldrew Yulo performing in the floor exercise in one competition.
Filipino gymnast Karl Eldrew Yulo and the rest of the Philippine national team look to wow the home crowd as the 3rd FIG Artistic Gymnastics Junior World Championships begins today at the Manila Marriott Hotel Grand Ballroom within the Newport World Resort in Pasay City.
Trained by Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya, who was instrumental in molding Yulo’s older brother Carlos into becoming a double Olympic champ, the younger Yulo is expected to harvest possible multiple golds in several events.
According to Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion, “Eldrew has been training very, very well in Japan, so if everything goes according to plan, he may be good for one or two golds” in the floor exercise, parallel bars, rings and vault apparatus.
“(These disciplines) would be Eldrew’s pet events in the five-day world meet that will close on Nov. 24. Eldrew last saw action at the Junior Asian Championships last June in South Korea, where he bagged a silver medal in the vault apparatus,” Carrion asserted.
“He excels in all of these four events, and if he is able to do what he is supposed to do, he will win golds,” she added to highlight the extensive training Yulo went through in Japan in the past months.
Gymnasts Hilarion Palles III, older brother John Anthony Palles, as well as CJ Pernia will also compete and join forces with Yulo for the boy’s team event while competing in the distaff side are Elizabeth Antone, Maxine Bondoc, Sabina Tayag and Jellian Bantilan.
“Vying in the team championship will be challenging for both boys and girls teams, considering that they will be up against tough teams like the US, Japan, China, even Malaysia,” Carrion described the national team’s challenges ahead.
“But this will be a good experience and exposure for them, and they are only bound to get better,” she enthused even as she mentioned that the Philippines fielding a team in the competitions almost didn’t happen.
“Despite the fact that we were the host country, the International Gymnastics Federation declined our request to field teams, which may be sad because we did not compete in the two past editions of the world juniors.
“But suddenly, the FIG belatedly told us we could field teams so that we had to undergo an evaluation so other gymnasts will join Karl Eldrew and Elizabeth Antone, who were supposed to be our lone representatives in each division,” the GAP chief pointed out.