INTERNATIONAL Gymnast Media (IGM), an international gymnastics e-zine, predicted a gold medal win for Filipino ace Carlos Yulo at the Paris Olympics men’s artistic gymnastics floor exercise event.
IGM noted that if Yulo finds consistency, he will dethrone defending champ Artem Dolgopyat of Israel and rule the floor exercise event.
Yulo with the gold, Dolgopyat with the silver and British Luke Whitehouse with the bronze were IGM’s podium finishers prediction.
Carlos Yulo. TMT PHOTO
“Defending champion Artem Dolgopyat from Israel has the difficulty and the consistency; hence, his presence on the podium at most major competitions.
“If Carlos Yulo of the Philippines manages to be consistent, he could easily top the field on floor. Great Britain’s Luke Whitehouse should be a major factor in this event.”
Yulo, the 2019 floor exercise world champion, was a favorite to top the event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics but a fall during the qualifying round on his pet event took him out of final contention.
The then-21-year-old Yulo almost redeemed himself in the vault, coming up just short in a fourth-place finish at the apparatus on which he eventually became a world champion three months after the Olympics that year.
IGM predicted that Yulo would win a silver in the vault this Olympics.
“Adem Asil of Turkey, Carlos Yulo of the Philippines and Wataru Tanigawa all can perform Ri II vaults (front handspring front double piked with a half twist), and a strong landing on this vault can propel them straight to the podium,” IGM said.
Armenian Artur Davtyan with the gold, Yulo with the silver, and Jake Garman with the bronze was IGM’s podium finishers prediction.
Meanwhile, United States’ Sports Illustrated (SI) predicted a silver medal finish for Yulo in floor exercise, having him finish behind reigning champ Dolgopyat.
Kazakh Milad Karimi completes the podium in the event.
SI also predicted another Filipino would win a medal at the Olympics, pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena, with the bronze.
He is set to finish behind reigning world and Olympic champ Armand Duplantis of Sweden (gold) and Chris Nilsen of the United States (silver).
Other Philippine bets to win a medal, such as boxers Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam, who won a silver medal each in Tokyo, as well as Eumir Marcial, who claimed a bronze in Tokyo, were not listed in SI’s podium finishers prediction. But with sterling performances, they still could prove the SI pundits wrong.
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