He rues misstep as he falls short of Olympic medal

By Edward Barbacena

Tokyo - Philippine gymnast Carlos Yulo would have won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics men's vault event if not for a costly penalty in the first of his two attempts

Yulo lamented a crucial error as he narrowly missed a podium finish in the Tokyo Olympics men's artistic gymnastics vault finals on Monday, August 2.

Yulo rose an average score of 14.716 (14.566 and 14.866) to land behind bronze medalist Artur Davytan of Armenia who finished with a 14.783 (14.766 and 14.800).

The 21-year-old Carlo received a -0.1 penalty in his first attempt after his foot stepped out of the cushion on his landing, giving him 14.566 points

Yulo's first run was given a score of 14.566 after a -0.1 penalty was given on his landing. But he did a strong second vault that got him earned him a 14.866 score, one of the highest of any of the competitors in these finals.

South Korea’s Shin Jeahwan won the gold medal with a score of 14.783 (14.733 and 14.833) while Russian Olympic Committee’s Denis Abliazin settled for silver also with 14.783 (14.766 and 14.800).

However, Shin was awarded the gold medal for having a higher level of difficulty in his attempts.

It was a strong stand for Yulo, whose 14.866 on his second attempt earned the second highest score in the event but it wasn’t enough to get him to the podium after beating only 14.566 on his first attempt.

ROC’s Nikita Nagornny registered the same score as Yulo at 14.716 (14.833 and 14.600) but Yulo got third for fourth on the validity of his score in vault 2.

Turkey’s sixth Asil Adem was 14th with 14.449 (15.266 and 13.633) while his compatriot Ahmet Onder was seventh with 14.066 (13.833 and 14.300).

Brazil’s Caio Souza last finished at 13.683 (14.466 and 12.900).

Also, Yulo is the youngest in the eight-man field at 21 years old.

As he wrapped up his first Olympic stint, Yulo said he still has room for improvement as he picked up valuable lessons in Tokyo.