Gymnastics PH chief sees Yulo winning in Olympics

By Peter Atencio

FILIPINO gymnast Carlos Yulo had a phenomenal performance when he finished his campaign in the Baku leg of the 2023 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series with two gold medals on Sunday in Azerbaijan.

Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion said this when Yulo won by fractions of a point after taking the men’s vault gold and added to his parallel bars’ triumph in a similar manner last Saturday.

The 23-year-old Yulo’s execution of a handspring double front pike for 15.033 points, followed by a Lopez vault for 14.833 points, gave him an average 14.933 points for the championship trophy.

“He is phenomenal. He is going to win medals in the Olympics,” said Carrion after talking to Yulo on the phone.

Yulo was ahead of Great Britain’s

Harry Hepworth, who settled for silver with a score of 14.816, with the Filipino standout winning by just a fraction of a point.

Wai Hung Shek of Hong Kong settled for the bronze medal with a score of 14.716.

“He (Yulo) said that he is more motivated now to be an Olympic champion. And when he puts his mind on what he is doing, nandu’n na siya,” added Carrion.

Earlier, the 23-year-old Yulo came up with a more challenging stint in Day 1 when he upset multi-titled Ukrainian Illia Kovtun’s winning run in the parallel bars.

Kovtun, who was heavily favored after having won six straight World Cup crowns on the apparatus, was second behind Yulo.

The other weekend, Yulo took second place in the parallel bars in the Doha meet.

This time, Yulo showed a more superior execution marks to win by fractions of a point to the Ukrainan with a score 15.400 to Kovtun’s 15.366.

“The judges from Europe were looking for perfection and Carlos had to be perfect with his execution,” added Carrion. The 4’1” Yulo returns to the Philippines on Tuesday for a short break and to be with his family.

Next month, he continues his quest to improve on his routine and his preparations to qualify for the Olympics when he joins the fourth and last edition of

Coo clinches silver in Indonesia, earns UCI BMX ranking points for Paris 2024

PATRICK Bren Coo kicked off his campaign to qualify for his first Olympics in Paris 2024 with a silver medal finish in the Indonesia BMX 2023 Round 1 at the Pulonas International BMX Center in Jakarta on Sunday.

“It was very, very close to the gold, but it’s racing,” said the Filipino-American Coo, the Asian Juniors champion in 2021. “But it’s racing, you know what it is.”

Indonesia’s Gusti Bagus Saputra won gold in 33.919 seconds, with Coo finishing only .20 second behind and another Indonesian, Rio Akbar, settling for the bronze with a time of 34.346.

Eleven riders raced in the final with Indonesia qualifying five more riders, South Korea with two and Thailand with one.

The humidity tolled on most of the foreign riders with the athletes and coaches from the foreign teams complaining about the short break in between the motos and the quarterfinals and finals.

“It was so hot and was super hard to cool down,” said Coo, who turns 21 on March 17. “We were given only some 15 minutes break in between races, unlike in other races and in the US where there are breaks are one hour or more.”

Coo earned 86 International Cycling Union points out of the possible 100 points.

Up next for Coo, whose family is Ilonggo, will be the Thailand BMX Cup 2—also a C1 UCI race that offers ranking points like the Jakarta event—on March 19 in Coo and Daniel Caluag are hoping to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

The Rio de Janeiro Olympian Caluag is focused on securing a ticket to Paris from the Hangzhou 19th Asian Games in September.

Caluag, 36, won the country’s only gold medal in the Incheon 2014 Asian Games and also owns an Asian Games bronze medal from Jakarta 2018 and Southeast Asian Games gold medal from Naypyidaw 2013, silver from Philippines 2019 and gold from the Singapore 2013 Asian championships.

More composed Embassy Chill with new firepower aims for MPBL title

THERE is no room for complacency for Coach Cholo Villanueva’s Batangas City Embassy Chill in the upcoming Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League.

While his team reached the southern division finals last year, he said that the new season is a totally different ballgame.

“We start from the ground up. It’s back to zero. It doesn’t mean that because we were in the division finals last year, we’re guaranteed to be in it again this year,” the former Green Archer pointed out.

Among the things that Villanueva wants the team to build on is their composure down the stretch, especially when they have a big margin.

“Knowing how to execute and finish the game strong are things we need to improve on this year,” Villanueva shared.

He also wants the team to have a quicker pace and, at the same time, continue with its defensive identity of limiting bigger opponents.

Batangas City Embassy Chill still has its core players— Rudy Lingganay, Jeckster Apinan, Cedrick Ablaza, John Rey Villanueva, and King Importante, and they are beefing up their lineup with new firepower.

“After last year’s performance, we assessed the needs of the team. We added another guard CJ Isit, who can help with our guard rotation. We also added two versatile forwards, Oneal Arum and Raffy Oktubre. Overall, we should be better than last year with these additions.

They can also help us achieve what Coach Cholo wants to develop, that is playing at our own pace,” said Batangas City Em- bassy Chill Team Manager Jean Alabanza.

Villanueva added, “Last year, we were number two in our division. We want to be number one this year, so we can’t give games away. If we have a chance to win every game, we’ll make sure to win it.”

The team will be playing its first game this March 14 at its home court, the Batangas City Coliseum, against Pasay.

Continuing Lucio Tan, Jr.’s Legacy Team Manager and Tanduay Distillery General Manager Gerry Tee shared that they are fortunate to have the unwavering support of Batangas City Representative Mario Vittorio “Marvey” Mariño and

Mayor Beverly Rose Dimacuha since they started in the league in 2018, where they emerged as champions.

“They share the same passion and commitment to grassroots sports development with Sir Lucio Tan, Jr.,” he said.

The late Tan is known for being a patron of sports development, particularly basketball. Tee shared that his former boss would always emphasize the importance of good health through sports and wanted to give talents from the barangay level the chance to make it in the bigger leagues.

“He would also remind us to make sure that discipline, sportsmanship, and camaraderie are in all our undertakings. He values winning and he sees losing as a lesson. He used to say that it is only in losing that you can truly value success, whether in basketball or business, and he wanted our players to keep this in mind,” Tee said.