Eldrew Yulo earns first senior medal with floor exercise gold in Turkey

MANILA, Philippines – It did not take long for Eldrew Yulo to stamp his class at the senior level.

Just two months since turning 18, Yulo won his first senior medal after capturing the floor exercise gold in the Antalya, Turkey leg of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series on Saturday, March 14.

Yulo posted 14.100 points as he topped the eight-man final that included Tokyo Olympics floor exercise silver medalist Rayderley Zapata of Spain.

Ireland’s Eamon Montgomery settled for silver with 13.833 points, while Zapata — who narrowly missed out on the Olympic gold in 2021 following a tiebreaker with Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat — bagged bronze with 13.333 points.

Yulo bounced back after falling short of a medal in his senior debut in the Baku World Cup in Azerbaijan, where he placed sixth in floor exercise and seventh in horizontal bar a week ago.

The gold in the Antalya World Cup bodes well for the future of Yulo, who is on the same upward trajectory as his older brother Carlos when the Olympic double gold medalist was just starting out at the senior level.

In 2018, the older Yulo won a vault bronze in the Melbourne World Cup in Australia, a vault silver in the Baku World Cup, and a floor exercise silver in the Doha World Cup in Qatar — all within a month early in his senior career. 

The younger Yulo has been making waves internationally, clinching a pair of bronzes in floor exercise and horizontal bar in the Junior World Artistic Gymnastics Championships hosted by the Philippines in November. – Rappler.com