By Adrian Stewart Co

Filipino gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo is back as a world champion after capturing a gold medal in the men’s vault final of the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships yesterday in Kitakyushu, Japan.

It was a sweet redemption for the 2020 Tokyo Games campaigner after failing to defend the men’s floor exercise gold medal he captured in the same world championship two years ago.

Yulo, who was the first to perform in the men’s vault finals, finished the opening round at second place with 14.916 points (5.600 on difficulty and 9.200 on execution), behind Hidenobu Yonekura of Japan, who had 15.000 points.

The Filipino gymnast, however, bounced back with a much cleaner execution in the second round with 15.033 points (5.600 on difficulty and 9.433 on execution) to secure his second world gymnastics gold.

Finishing behind Yulo were Yonekura, who settled for the silver medal with 14.866 points after just scoring 14.733 in the second round, while finishing with bronze was Andrey Medvedev of Israel, who had 14.649 points.

Prior to the championship round, the 21-year-old Yulo landed at third place during the men’s vault qualifying event on Wednesday evening with his total score of 14.808 points.

On Saturday night, Yulo failed to defend his men’s floor exercise gold medal as he landed at fifth place in the finale with 14.566 points after being deducted points for errors in his execution.

Finishing in front of Yulo were Nikola Bartolini of Italy with 14.800 points followed by Kazuki Minami of Japan with 14.766, Emil Soravuo of Finland with 14.700 and Korea’s Sunghyun Ryu with 14.600./ASC, WDJ