No pressure on Yulo

Carlos Yulo will be the first athlete to plunge into action in the Tokyo Olympics.

But Gymnastics Association of the Philippines president Cynthia Carrion hopes that he marches to battle without any pressure of winning.

Carrion yesterday said she believes that there would be a handful of contenders capable of winning the country’s first Olympic gold medal when the Summer Games open on 23 July.

With that, there should be no pressure on the 21-year-old

Yulo, who will be coming in as the gymnast to watch after emerging as world champion in 2018.

Aside from Yulo, other top contenders for the country are Olympic silver medalist Hidilyn Diaz of weightlifting, US Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso of golf and world-class EJ Obiena of athletics.

“There is more pressure on gymnastics and more pressure on Caloy,” said Carrion during the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum yesterday.

“It’s more refreshing if there are other people who could win the gold medal.”

Yulo booked his Olympic ticket in 2019 after ruling the men’s individual all-around event of the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics

World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Carrion assured that Yulo is in great shape despite being burned out from his round-the-clock training with Japanese mentor Munehiro Kugimiya.

“There are moments that Caloy is down, that he’s burned out. There were times he wanted to go back to the Philippines,” Carrion said. “But he is doing very well. He looks perfect.” Yulo will compete in all seven individual events in the Olympics starting 24 July at the Ariake Gymnastics Center.