Olympic-bound Carlos Yulo clinched a bronze medal in vault in the recent 2020 All-Japan Senior Gymnastics Championships in Takasaki, Japan.
The 20-year-old world champion shared identical 14.733 points for third place with Kenzo Shirai to settle behind co-winners Wataru Kanigawa and Keisuke Asato.
Kanigawa, a 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medalist, and Asato both posted 14.900.
Yulo struggled in floor exercise, the event that earned him a ticket to next year’s Olympics, by sharing 19th place with Tatsuki Tanaka and Kentaro Yunoki with a dismal 13.966 showing.
The PH bet also failed to make podium finishes in pommel horse (12.900 for 43rd place), still rings (14.100 for 11th), parallel bars (14.066 for 14th) and horizontal bar (13.633 for 19th).
His performances only earned him 12th place in the all-around with 83.398, a far cry from multiple world championship medalist Kazuma Kaya with 86.998.
Kaya, who is also competing for the Tokyo Olympics, also captured the gold in parallel bars and silver in pommel horse.
Kanigawa came in second overall with 85.965 while Kenta Chiba finished third with 85.166.
This is the first tournament for Yulo after a long layoff due to the pandemic. His last competition was at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games where he collected two golds and five silvers.
Yulo hopes to regain his composure and improve his future performances when he continues his extensive training in Japan with coach Munehiro Kugimiya.