IN this penultimate edition of the seven-part series “How they qualified for Paris,” The Manila Times explains how gymnasts Carlos Yulo, Aleah Finnegan, Levi Ruivivar and Emma Malabuyo clinched their respective Paris Olympic berths.
For a quick review, lone representatives of their respective national teams — Joanie Delgaco (rowing), Samantha Catantan (fencing) and Kiyomi Watanabe (judo) got featured first in this series giving a review of how these Paris-bound Filipino athletes made it to the Olympics.
Golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina came second; swimmers Sanchez and Hatch third; weightlifters Vanessa Sarno, Elreen Ando and John Ceniza fourth; and the athletics team of pole vaulter Ernest ‘EJ’ Obiena, as well as hurdlers Lauren Hoffman and John Cabang, fifth.
Now with the gymnastics team, the second-highest Philippine team delegation to Paris after boxing, which has five and will be the final installment of this series, the spotlight shines on Yulo first.
A Tokyo Olympian, the 24-year-old Yulo qualified for the Olympics for the second time after placing third in the floor exercise event of the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships last October in Belgium.
According to Olympic qualification rules, a gymnast has to top an event or the individual all-around tiff to clinch an Olympic ticket.
But since the top two in floor exercise in champ Artem Dolgopyat of Israel and second Fred Richard of USA had already secured Olympic berths through the men’s all-around qualification, Yulo became the highest eligible-ranked athlete in floor and thus seized a Paris slot.
Yulo’s situation is practically similar to Finnegan, who likewise competed at the World Championships and placed 32nd in the women’s all-around qualifications but finished fifth among 14 eligible athletes and thus qualified for the Olympics.
Finnegan’s fellow Fil-Ams Ruivivar and Malabuyo, meanwhile, took the longer route to Paris.
Ruivivar, only 17 years old, clinched her Paris berth after placing second in the FIG World Cup series, where the top two gymnasts per apparatus with the highest three-meet point total in the four-leg tiff advanced to the Games.
Ruivivar had 14 points in the Cairo leg, 12 in Cottbus and 18 in Baku. Her highest three of 14, 18 and 30 in the last leg in Doha last April summed up to 62 points, good for second place behind Georgia-Rose Brown of New Zealand who totaled 70.
Malabuyo also tried to qualify for the Olympics through those four World Cup legs but fell short.
The 21-year-old, however, managed to catch the last bus through the Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships, the final Olympic qualifying tournament held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last May.
Malabuyo had to top the all-around tiff to qualify but only placed third with 50.398 points.
However, just like Yulo and Finnegan at the World Championships, Malabuyo’s score proved to be the highest among Olympic-eligible competitors, allowing her to qualify outright.
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