Carlos Yulo begins elusive Asian Games gold hunt

The Asian Games gold is the only piece missing from Carlos Yulo’s treasure chest.

His hunt begins today.

Yulo, alongside his younger brother Karl Eldrew, Juancho Miguel Besana, Justine Ace De Leon, and Zachary Cortins Nuñez, leads the Philippine team in pursuit of the country’s first-ever gymnastics medal in the quadrennial event.

In its 75 years of participation, the Philippines has never won a medal since the inaugural event in 1951 in New Delhi, India.

The quintet is set to start its campaign in men’s artistic gymnastics at the Nagoya General Gymnasium (Rainbow Hall) at 9 a.m., Manila time, with all five athletes competing in all six apparatuses floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bars.

The Philippines is entered in Subdivision 1, which also has Singapore, Mongolia, Thailand, Iran, and Vietnam.

Subdivision 2, meanwhile, is composed of host Japan, China, South Korea, Kazakhstan, and Chinese Taipei.

All eyes are certainly on Paris Olympics double-gold medalist Yulo in his pet event, the floor exercise, after he ruled the Asian Championships last June, when Karl Eldrew also took the bronze.

But capturing that elusive Asiad gold will be a tough challenge for Carlos, as Olympic champions Oka Shinnosuke and Daiki Hashimoto of Japan, along with reigning all-around champion Zhang Boheng of China, stand in his way.

The 2026 Asiad in Aichi-Nagoya will be the second for the 26-year-old Carlos, who made his senior debut at the 2018 edition in Jakarta, Indonesia. There, he finished fourth in men’s vault and seventh in floor exercise.

He skipped the 2023 edition in China as he chose to compete in the World Championships, which were qualifiers for the Paris Olympics.