Not for the want of trying, Carlos Edriel Yulo bagged a silver and a bronze, respectively, in the men’s vault and parallel bars at the end of the 51st FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England, Sunday afternoon (Sunday night in Manila).

In a heartbreaking outcome, Yulo yielded his vault title by the slimmest of margins to top Armenian qualifier Arthur Davtyan, who banked on his strong and clean aerial skills and landings to wrest the gold with 15.050 points, or just a one-tenth of a point ahead of his Filipino rival.

After a short break, Yulo later scored 15.366 points for bronze in the high-scoring parallel bars won by reigning Tokyo Olympic champion Zou Jingyuan of China, who was untouchable in ruling the event for a third time at the worlds in scoring 16.166 points. German Lukas Dauser bagged the silver medal (15.500).

Seeking to atone for earlier lapses in the men’s all-around and floor exercise finals, the pint-sized Yulo, who was the third performer at the vault, briefly took the lead after he scored a solid 15.000 points on his first run with a handspring pike double front half despite landing slightly out of bounds.

That proved to be a costly error meriting a .10 deduction that led to his downfall, following a score of 14.900 on his second attempt, resulting in the 14.950 average output of the two tries.

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The second-to-the-last entry, Davtyan opened with a picture perfect dragulescu — front handspring, double front half out — in scoring 15.000 points, then sealing the deal in with a superb second vault in earning 15.100 points with his pinpoint landing.

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Sharing the podium with Davtyan and Yulo was bronze medalist Igor Radivilov (14.733) from the war-torn country of Ukraine.

The Filipino campaigner acknowledged he still had not perfected the “ri se gwang” — a front handspring double pike one-and-a-half twist named after Rio Olympic games men’s vault gold medalist Ri Se-gwang of North Korea — that he executed on his first try.

“My first vault is not ready yet. It was a great challenge for me, and great preparation for next year. I’m really happy that I made it, even though it’s not gold in the end, it’s (still) silver,” Yulo said.

“It’s really different when you get gold, but it is what it is, and I accepted that,” he added with a shrug, adding that he was dissatisfied with his second vault.

“My second vault was not good. I really focused on my first vault. It was really stressful.”

Also the third entry in the parallel bars, the Filipino bet again had a fleeting spell in the lead after four of the eight finalists performed, but that position was eclipsed by Dauser, the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, and Zou in succession as they took their respective turns at the apparatus.

Yulo's stint was somewhat of a disappointment after declaring earlier that he had wanted a top-6 finish in the men’s all-around event and a gold in the floor exercise, vault and parallel bars.

The Filipino bet placed 8th in the men’s all-around and could only muster 7th place in the floor exercise, an event he won convincingly at the 2019 world meet in Stuttgart, Germany.

Yulo, however, kept his record of winning at least a medal in his fourth straight outing at the world competition, beginning with a bronze medal in the floor exercise in his debut in the 2018 edition in Doha, Qatar, followed up by his historic gold in the same event in Stuttgart, Germany a year later.

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Last year in Kitakyushu, Japan, Yulo garnered a gold in the men’s vault and silver in the parallel bars.

Yulo, Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya and compatriot Junpei Kono, the athlete’s longtime physiotherapist, were scheduled to head back to the Japanese capital early Monday morning, according to gymnastics chief Cynthia Carrion.

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