MANILA, Philippines – It did not take long for Carlos Yulo to show that on his best days, he is still a force to be reckoned with.

Redeeming himself from his floor exercise flub, Yulo reached the finals of vault and parallel bars in the Doha, Qatar leg of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Series on Thursday, April 18.

He placed second in the qualification for both apparatuses, earning 14.966 points in vault and 14.633 points in parallel bars to get a crack at two medals as he continues to gear up for the upcoming Olympics in Paris, France.

Yulo wowed in his first vault with 15.3 points – the highest out of the 25 competitors – and scored 14.633 points in his second vault to finish behind Armenia’s Artur Davtyan in the apparatus where he is a former world champion.

Davtyan, the Tokyo Games bronze medalist in vault, topped the field with 15.116 points.

In parallel bars, only Uzbekistan’s Rasuljon Abdurakhimov recorded a higher score than Yulo with 14.9 points.

Yulo – who already booked his Olympic ticket in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship last October – quickly regained his bearings a day after surprisingly failing to reach the floor exercise final, considering he won bronze in the apparatus in the Baku, Azerbaijan leg in March.

A former floor exercise world champion, Yulo tallied just 12.666 points in the qualification on Wednesday, April 17, to end up at 21st place out of 28 participants.

Joining Yulo and Davtyan in the vault final are Audrys Nin Reyes of Dominican Republic, James Bacueti of Australia, Niccolo Vannucchi of Italy, Chun Chen Ng of Malaysia, Aurel Benovic of Croatia, and Yahor Sharamkou of Belarus.

Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei’s Hung Yuan-Hsi, Brazil’s Diogo Soares and Caio Souza, Kazakhstan’s Milad Karimi, and Italy’s Lay Giannini and Nicolo Mozzato complete the cast in the parallel bars final.

The vault and parallel bars finals are set on Saturday, April 20.

In women’s action, Levi Jung-Ruivivar placed 11th in the qualification for balance beam with 12.566 points, securing the third reserve spot in the final.

Jung-Ruivivar resumes her campaign on Friday, April 19, as she competes in the uneven bars final with hopes of punching her ticket to the Paris Games. – Rappler.com