Two-time Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo and younger brother Karl Eldrew Yulo are set to undergo a training camp in Japan before heading directly to Nagoya for the 2026 Asian Games, according to Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) president Cynthia Carrion.
Carrion told The Philippine Star that the brothers will train at Tokushukai and are expected to leave for Japan roughly two weeks before the Asian Games. From there, they will proceed directly to the competition in Nagoya.
The move gives the Philippines’ top men’s artistic gymnasts additional preparation time on Japanese soil before the competition begins.
A historic opportunity for Philippine gymnastics
The stakes are enormous.
The Philippines has never won an Asian Games gymnastics medal, according to GMA News, making the Yulo brothers’ campaign potentially historic even before they step onto the apparatus.
Carlos enters the competition as the country’s biggest medal hope. The 26-year-old is already a two-time Olympic champion and a multiple-time world champion, while Eldrew has rapidly emerged as one of the country’s most promising young gymnasts.
Their form in the 2026 Senior Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships in Zunyi, China, provided an early glimpse of what could happen in Nagoya.
Carlos won gold in the men’s floor exercise, while Eldrew captured bronze in the same event, putting both brothers on the podium together. Carlos posted a 14.700, while Eldrew scored 14.300.
That result strengthened the belief within Philippine gymnastics that the brothers could finally end the country’s long Asian Games medal drought.
Japan camp adds another layer to the preparation
The Yulos will not be the only Filipino gymnasts training in Japan.
Carrion said Juancho Miguel Besana, Justine Ace de Leon and Zachary Cortins Nuñez will also have a Japanese training camp, although they will train at a different facility—the Sohgoh Gymnastics Club—before proceeding to the Asian Games.
Earlier reports also indicated that the Philippine men’s artistic gymnastics team would use overseas training camps as part of its preparations for Nagoya. Daily Tribune reported that GAP was planning camps in Japan and the Netherlands as the team prepares for the continental competition.
Carlos is the favorite—but the competition will be brutal
While Carlos is expected to carry much of the Philippines’ medal hopes, a gold medal will be anything but guaranteed.
Daily Tribune noted that the Asian Games field includes major Asian gymnastics powers, including China’s Zhang Boheng and Japanese Olympic champions Shinnosuke Oka and Daiki Hashimoto.
That means the Yulo brothers will face some of the strongest gymnasts in the region on their home continent.
Carlos also skipped the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou to focus on qualifying for the Paris Olympics, making his return to the continental Games particularly significant.
For Eldrew, meanwhile, the Asian Games represent another major step in what has already been a remarkable rise.
The younger Yulo only made the transition to the senior level in 2026, yet he quickly made his presence felt internationally. He won gold at the Antalya leg of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in March and followed that with his bronze medal at the Asian Championships in China.
The brother-versus-brother storyline is only the beginning
What makes the campaign particularly compelling is that Carlos and Eldrew are no longer simply siblings sharing the same sport.
They are now legitimate international competitors appearing in the same senior field.
Their Asian Championships campaign marked a major milestone, with both brothers reaching apparatus finals in the same senior competition.
Now they have a chance to create an even bigger piece of Philippine sports history together.
The artistic gymnastics competition at the Asian Games is scheduled for September 21 to 25 at Rainbow Hall of the Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya. The broader Asian Games run from September 19 to October 4.
For Carlos, it is another opportunity to add to an already extraordinary résumé.
For Eldrew, it is a chance to announce himself on one of Asia’s biggest sporting stages.
And for the Philippines, it could finally be the moment gymnastics breaks through.
The Yulo brothers have the talent. They have the preparation. They now have Japan in sight.
What remains is the hardest part: turning all that promise into the Philippines’ first-ever Asian Games gymnastics medal—and possibly its first gold.
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