Yulo lights up men's qualifying final session

Carlos Yulo lit up the final session of men’s qualifying with a storming set of performances that saw him advance to the all-around final as the third-highest qualifier and send a warning signal to the rest of the competition.

Yulo recovered from an awkward start on pommel horse to romp through the rest of his rotations, finishing with a near-flawless routine on floor to top the individual rankings on the apparatus by half a mark. 

The Filipino also posted a score of 14.849 on vault to qualify second and 15.300 on parallel bars to ensure he remains in the hunt for four World Championship medals. 

And ominously for his rivals, the defending vault champion believes there is still even more to come and is not resting on his laurels. 

“It’s a really good result but it’s just qualifying,” he said.  

“I’m not boasting, it’s just not the final. If I can do it in the final then maybe I can be satisfied.

“Right now, I’m really glad but not that satisfied because there are lot of areas that I can improve on, especially pommel horse.”

Yulo was made to wait until the very final subdivision to get out on the mat in Liverpool and had watched on as Japanese duo Wataru Tanigawa and Daiki Hashimoto set the all-around standard with a pair of impressive displays earlier in the day.

But the double world champion was clearly not phased, as he finished just 0.001 marks behind Olympic all-around champion Hashimoto.

That was in part thanks to tremendous efforts on vault and parallel bars, alongside a dominant display on his favoured floor.

“Vault is really scary,” admitted Yulo. “That’s my first time doing the Ri Se Gwang - handspring on, pike off - so that’s really big for me.

“It gave me confidence to compete in the finals and p-bars, I’m really glad I made it to the finals.

“Today, I didn’t lose to myself and I’m really grateful for that.” 

The only disappointment for Yulo was his opening score of 11.766 on pommel after coming off before dismount.

However, the 22-year-old revealed it was not a surprise having struggled in podium training and chose to accentuate the positives ahead of Wednesday's all-around final.

“On my two podiums, I didn’t make it until dismount so it was obvious that I was going to fall,” revealed Yulo.

“My wrists are painful and I cannot really put 100% in. It happens but it’s alright, there’s nothing to be negative about – just move on.“I switched my focus to the things I can still do.

“This is the first time I’m going to be in the first group, that’s a big achievement for me.

“I’m going to try to beat what I did today. I’m going to be more aggressive.

“There are still areas that aren’t perfect. Every movement still has a deduction but I’ll try my best. My goal is to show my gymnastics to the world.”

The World Gymnastics Championships Liverpool 2022 will be one of the largest international sporting events ever to be held in the city. Over 500 gymnasts from more than 70 countries will compete at the M&S Bank Arena from 29 October to 6 November 2022. Tickets are available at www.2022worldgymnastics.com/tickets