Carlos Yulo reaches floor and vault finals at 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam

Two medal chances survive a difficult qualifying round

Carlos Yulo qualified second on floor exercise with 14.500 points and sixth on vault with 14.266 at the 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, keeping two title bids alive despite missing the individual all-around final.

The Philippine gymnast scored 77.631 across six apparatus to finish 34th in men's qualification at Rotterdam Ahoy. His next targets are the floor final on October 24 and the vault final on October 25, when he will seek to defend the world title he won in Jakarta in 2025.

Yulo's results put him close to the leading floor qualifier, Arsenii Dukhno, who scored 14.700. On vault, Jake Jarman of Great Britain and Artur Davtyan of Armenia shared the highest qualifying average at 14.633.

The two Olympic gold medals Yulo won at Paris 2024 came on these same apparatus. In Rotterdam, they again supplied his strongest performances, while falls on high bar and pommel horse damaged his chances of reaching the final that rewards consistency across all six events.

The International Olympic Committee's men's qualifying report confirmed his two apparatus final places and his 34th position in the all-around standings. Yulo competed alongside younger brother Karl Eldrew Yulo, who missed the finals, as did Philippine teammate Juancho Miguel Besana.

Floor puts Yulo within reach of the leader

Yulo finished 0.200 points behind Dukhno on floor and exactly 0.200 ahead of Israel's Artem Dolgopyat, who qualified third with 14.300. The scores placed Yulo between the leading qualifier and the 2023 world champion heading into the medal round.

His routine opened with a two and a half twist connected to a front double pike, a tumbling combination that joins twisting movement to two forward somersaults with the body folded at the hips. He finished with a double layout, completing two somersaults with his body extended, followed by a small hop backward on landing.

Frederick Richard of the United States qualified fourth with 14.233, followed by Jarman on 14.133 and Yahor Sharamkou on 14.100. Noam Berkovich of Israel and Ryosuke Doi of Japan tied seventh at 14.033, completing the eight gymnasts advancing to the final.

Yulo's 14.500 gave him a margin of 0.467 over the final qualifying score. His position among the leaders came with a routine carrying a difficulty value of 5.7, leaving room for the change he said he was considering for the final.

A harder floor routine is in his plans

Yulo said a change to his second tumbling pass could raise his floor difficulty from 5.7 to 6.0. Difficulty measures the value of the skills a gymnast performs; execution measures how cleanly those skills are completed, including body positions and landings.

Yulo, the reigning Olympic floor champion, described the possible upgrade and his approach to the medal round:

My second pass, a double twist, would make it 6.0," he said. "I'm going to give everything there.

The proposed change would add 0.300 to the routine's difficulty value, compared with the 0.200 separating Yulo and Dukhno in qualification. The final score will also depend on execution, making clean landings and controlled movement just as relevant to his medal bid.

Yulo won the world floor title in Stuttgart in 2019 and took bronze on the apparatus in Jakarta in 2025. Rotterdam offers a chance to return to the top of the world podium on an event where he already holds an Olympic title.

Two different vault scores produce sixth place

Yulo's vault qualification depended on two attempts: 14.000 on the first and 14.533 on the second. Their recorded average of 14.266 placed him sixth among the eight finalists.

Judges credited his first vault as a Dragulescu with a difficulty value of 5.2, downgrading the piked double front half he attempted. The decision reduced the difficulty credited for that attempt. His second vault, a Kas double, produced the higher score.

Vault qualification for an apparatus final uses the average of two vaults. Yulo's second attempt scored 0.533 more than his first, helping secure his place despite the lower difficulty awarded on the opening vault.

Yulo nevertheless sounded pleased with how he had performed. The defending world vault champion described the qualification round in personal terms:

Maybe this year is the best qualification on vault for me," he said. "In my opinion I did really well.

Jarman and Davtyan led on 14.633, ahead of Ukraine's Nazar Chepurnyi with 14.450, Dukhno with 14.350 and Japan's Shohei Kawakami with 14.283. Norway's Sebastian Sponevik qualified seventh on 14.233, followed by Britain's Harry Hepworth on 14.216.

Yulo was just 0.017 behind Kawakami and 0.033 ahead of Sponevik. Those small margins show how tightly grouped several finalists were, with only 0.067 separating fourth qualifier Dukhno from fifth qualifier Kawakami.

Falls end the all-around bid

Yulo's all-around total of 77.631 left him outside the final, which admits 24 gymnasts with a maximum of two from each country. The event combines floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar.

Japan's Oka Shinnosuke led qualification with 85.098, followed by teammate Hashimoto Daiki on 84.632. Dukhno was third with 83.866. Yulo finished 7.467 points behind Oka across the six apparatus.

Yulo fell on pommel horse and high bar. He said breathing difficulties affected his high bar routine after he had competed on parallel bars, and he linked his difficult day to limited preparation following the Asian Games.

Yulo explained what happened on high bar:

After P-bars, on high bar, I couldn't really breathe properly, and I couldn't really exaggerate my movements. So I fell," he said. "I think there was a lack of preparation for me coming here after the Asian Games.

The missed final ended his chance of improving on his best world all-around finish, eighth in Liverpool in 2022. He has reached three world all-around finals during his career.

Yulo reports no injuries after Asian Games pain

Yulo said the pain he had experienced during the Asian Games, which ended on October 4, had gone. He identified preparation, rather than an ongoing injury, as the main problem behind his struggles on high bar and pommel horse.

The Philippine gymnast gave this assessment of his condition after qualification:

I'm happy that I'm complete and no injuries at all," he said. "The pain I was dealing with at the Asian Games (that ended October 4) is now gone.

Yulo arrived in Rotterdam after winning floor and vault gold at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan. The Philippine team also held a training camp in Antibes, France, before the World Championships.

Before the competition, Yulo had described the Asian Games as part of his world championship preparations and said he intended to compete on all six apparatus. After qualification, his focus shifted to learning from the mistakes while preparing for the two finals he had reached.

Yulo described that response to the difficult routines:

Things happen, and we learn," he said. "We had a couple mistakes, but I'm going to take it as a lesson. We're always winning in a lesson, so there's no need to be down.

Eldrew and Besana finish outside the finals

Karl Eldrew Yulo scored 67.032 to finish 137th in the all-around qualification. He fell on his second floor tumbling pass and did not advance to an apparatus final.

The younger Yulo arrived with medals from earlier competitions, including bronze at his Asian Games debut, gold at the Antalya World Cup and two bronzes at the Cairo World Cup. Rotterdam gave the brothers another opportunity to compete at the same international meet.

Carlos Yulo said he was proud of his younger brother despite a difficult qualification day for both. Speaking as Eldrew's older brother, he reflected on their shared experience:

Today wasn't for us, I think, and there are a lot of lessons and learnings we take," he said. "I'm just really proud of him as a big brother, although I'm small.

Juancho Miguel Besana, who competed on selected apparatus, finished 65th on high bar with 12.733 and also missed the apparatus finals. Haylee Garcia was the Philippines' representative in the women's all-around competition; her result was not yet available.

Three world titles form the foundation

Yulo entered Rotterdam with eight world championship medals: three golds, two silvers and three bronzes. His world titles came on floor in 2019 and vault in 2021 and 2025.

His medal collection also includes parallel bars silver from Kitakyushu in 2021, vault silver and parallel bars bronze from Liverpool in 2022, and floor bronze from Jakarta in 2025. His first world championship medal came at his debut in Doha in 2018.

Paris 2024 added Olympic gold on both floor and vault. His Rotterdam qualification results keep him in contention on the same two apparatus, with a different task on each: reclaiming the world floor crown and retaining the vault title.

Yulo's strongest qualifying rank came on floor, where he placed second. Vault will require him to climb from sixth against a field led by two gymnasts sharing 14.633, although his second attempt already showed he could produce a score above his qualifying average.

The dates that shape the medal chase

The championships run from October 17 to 25 at Rotterdam Ahoy. Men's qualification took place on October 17 and 18, followed by separate finals for teams, the all-around and individual apparatus.

• October 4: The Asian Games ended, less than two weeks before world championship qualification began.
• October 17-18: Men's qualification took place in Rotterdam.
• October 20: The men's team final is scheduled.
• October 22: The men's individual all-around final is scheduled.
• October 24: Yulo is scheduled to compete in the floor exercise final.
• October 25: Yulo is scheduled to compete in the vault final.

Japan led team qualification with 254.529, ahead of Great Britain on 251.460 and World Gymnastics 2 on 249.162. China, the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Colombia completed the eight teams advancing.

The team final also carries Olympic qualification stakes: its top three teams will obtain quota places for the Los Angeles 2028 Games. For Yulo, the immediate focus is the closing weekend, with two opportunities to add to his world medal collection.

Key Points

• Carlos Yulo qualified second on floor with 14.500 and sixth on vault with 14.266.
• He finished 34th in the all-around with 77.631 and missed the final.
• He said a planned floor upgrade could raise his difficulty from 5.7 to 6.0.
• His floor final is scheduled for October 24 and his vault final for October 25.
• Yulo is seeking to reclaim the world floor title and defend his vault crown.
• Karl Eldrew Yulo and Juancho Miguel Besana did not reach a men's apparatus final.