London 2012: Day 3 and 4
GB men's team make history
Team GB men's gymnasts made history on Monday night by clinching a bronze medal in the team final, Team GB's first gymnastics team medal in a century. The team of Max Whitlock, Sam Oldham, Louis Smith, Dan Purvis and Kristian Thomas hit 17 out of 18 routines to take the bronze medal behind 2008 Olympic Champions China and favourites Japan. Highlights of the event included a massive vault from Kristian Thomas and a superb pommel horse routine from Louis Smith, putting him right in the drivers seat for his individual final at the weekend.
In a controversial moment, it looked like Team GB had taken a silver medal, before a protest against a score from Japan's Kohei Uchimura about his pommel horse dismount appeared on the screens. Uchimura and Japan won the appeal, giving them an extra 0.5 and knocking Team GB to bronze which received loud boos from the disgruntled crowd.
A medal of any colour would have made history for the men, but even just the flash of silver shows what this team can do in the future. Well done to the boys!
GB women's team place 6th
Team GB women's gymnasts also made history on Tuesday night by placing 6th in the team final, Team GB's highest ever ranking. The team of Beth Tweddle, Hannah Whelan, Jenni Pinches, Rebecca Tunney and Imogen Cairns had a shaky start on beam with a fall from Jenni on a change leg leap and a low landing on Hannah's dismount, but bounced back on floor with spectacular tumbling from Hannah, Jenni and Beth. Over on vault Rebecca and Jenni hit their double twisting yurchenko's and Imogen showcased a fabulously high one and half twist. Bars was the final piece for Team GB, clean routines from Hannah and Rebecca were followed by yet another fantastic routine from Beth Tweddle who scored 15.833, slightly down on her qualification score but still the highest score of the day, putting pressure on her competitors for Monday's final.
Team USA won the competition ahead of Russia who had a couple of errors on their final piece, floor and Romania. The surprise 5th place was the team from Canada who just pipped Team GB by 0.4 of a mark. Highlight of the evening had to be a HUGE vault from McKayla Maroney of the USA!
Coming up...
Wednesday 4.30pm - Dan Purvis and Kristian Thomas take to the All Around men's final
Thursday 4.30pm - Hannah Whelan and Rebecca Tunney go all out for the women's All Around final.
