Pinoy gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo made a diminishing return in the world arena after snatching gold in vault and silver in parallel bars of the 2021 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships last night in Kitakyushu, Japan.

The 21-year-old Yulo showed spectacular execution in the men’s vault finals with a score of 14.916 after two rounds, beating Hidenobu Yonekura of Japan (14.866) and Andrey Medvedev of Israel (14.649). He finished the signature vault in second place with 14.800 points (5.600 on difficulty and 9.200 on execution), behind Yonekura’s 15.000 points.

It was a momentous scene for Yulo as he bounced back with a much cleaner execution in the Dragulescu with 15.033 points (5.600 on difficulty and 9.433 on execution) to secure his second world gymnastics gold.

This was Yulo’s first championship on vault after taking a bronze in the All-Japan Championships just the previous month and the silver at the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

With his gold medal feat, Yulo failed to take home a double gold after settling for a silver medal in the parallel bars finals with 15.300 points.

Yulo was in the lead after six gymnasts before he was overtaken by Chinese Xuwei Hu, who had 15.466 points. Another Chinese bagged the bronze medal in Cong Shi (15.066).

It was still a sweet redemption for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games campaigner after failing to defend his gold medal in the men’s floor exercise finale on Saturday.

Yulo was unable to follow up his floor exercise success from 2019 as he landed at fifth place in the finale with 14.566 points after being deducted points for errors in his execution.

Meanwhile, Christmas will come early for Yulo, who stands to receive a windfall for his remarkable feat.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William Ramirez yesterday lauded Yulo for winning the gold in the vault and silver in the parallel bars of the prestigious event. Ramirez said Yulo deserves a hefty cash incentive.

“We congratulate Carlos Yulo on his gold medal in the men’s vault and silver medal in the parallel bars. This is proof of the excellence of our Filipino athletes,” said Presidential spokesman Harry Roque.

It was the second gold medal in the world event for Yulo, who ruled the floor exercise in 2019 in Stuttgart, Germany. For that feat, he received P1 million from the PSC. In 2018, he won the bronze in Doha and received P250,000.

“Very happy for Caloy and his coaches, the GAP (Gymnastics Association of the Philippines) leadership and his parents,” said Ramirez.

The PSC board will meet this week to decide how much Yulo will receive but reports have it that the Southeast Asian Games gold medalist can get as much as P1 million for the gold and another P500,000 for the silver.IMT Sports