Filipino gymnastic star Carlos Yulo to headline Asian Championships in Singapore
Two-time world champion will look to add to his 3 Asian golds at the prestigious event at OCBC Arena from 10 to 18 June
SINGAPORE — Filipino gymnastics star Carlos Yulo will headline a host of top-class talents taking part in the 10th Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, which will be held at Singapore's OCBC Arena from 10 to 18 June.
This is the first major continental event hosted by Singapore Gymnastics, it is a key event for the gymnasts in their road to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Athletes who want to qualify for the 2024 Games will first have to do well at the Asian Championships in Singapore to earn their slots to this year’s World Championships in Belgium - where Olympic qualification is up for grabs.
"The presence of some of the world’s biggest names in the sport will go a long way to growing the sport here and establishing Singapore as a regional hub for gymnastics,” said Singapore Gymnastics president Patrick Liew.
Yulo, 23, is the first Southeast Asian to earn a medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2016, when he earned a bronze in the floor exercise. He went on to clinch the coveted gold medal in the same event in 2019, and also added the vault gold in the 2021 edition.
He also has three Asian Championships golds to his name, winning all of them at the 2022 edition in Doha in the floor exercise, vault and parallel bars. He missed last month's FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cairo with an ankle sprain, but is expected to take part in the upcoming SEA Games in Cambodia.
Eight-time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina also taking part
The Singapore event will also see veteran gymnast Oksana Chusovitina taking part.
The Uzbek great - an Olympic gold medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Games - is still going strong at age 47, having participated in her eighth Olympics at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She also won a gold medal at the Islamic Solidarity Games in the same year.
Top gymnastics nations such as China, Japan and South Korea have also confirmed their participation in the Asian Championships. Organisers are hopeful that the likes of Taiwan’s 2020 Olympics silver medallist Lee Chih-kai and Indonesia’s 2018 Asian Games silver medalist Rifda Irfanaluthfi would also be signing up for the competition.
“It will be an opportunity for the gymnastics community and public to watch Asia’s best in action and experience, first-hand, the atmosphere of a high-level international competition," Singapore women’s team captain Nadine Joy Nathan said.
“For athletes, competing on home ground with friends and family cheering us on will be a special experience.”
Ticket sales for the Asian Junior Championships (10 to 12 June) and the Asian Senior Championships (15 to 18 June) will go live from 9am on 5 May (Friday), with tickets for a day pass starting at $15.
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