ContinueGreat Britain's male gymnasts qualified in third place for tomorrow’s team final and secured five places in individual finals on an amazing day for the sport yesterday.
The result is the finest for Britain's men in modern gymnastics history and made up for the disappointment of the cycling and the tennis for Great Britain on the opening day.
China's men stuttered from apparatus to apparatus, putting together a surprisingly average score of 269.985 to qualify sixth. Britain led qualifying for a time with 272.420, but the United States (275.342) and Russia (272.595) bettered the hosts in the last qualifying session.
Germany, Japan, Ukraine and France are the other qualifiers, although Japan also struggled and world champion Kohei Uchimura, who many believed would win gold in London, fell twice on a day of drama at the North Greenwich Arena.
Team GB’s quintet took full advantage of the mistakes made by others, with Britain’s Louis Smith being one of the highlights for the home nation.
The 23-year-old fought back tears as he scored 15.800 in an amazing routine, to wild applause from an excited crowd, as he qualified in first place for the pommel horse final.
"That was an unbelievable relief," Smith, who won bronze in the event at Beijing 2008, told BBC Sport.
"We all have smiles on our faces, it's monstrous.
"It's been an emotional four years. There's been a lot of pressure since Beijing to perform at this Olympics. There was a lot riding on it. I couldn't help thinking about the future, providing for my family, the expectation.
"I said 'Come on' to myself twice in my pommel horse routine, and I've never done that before. It's hard to explain what I felt when I landed that routine. It came close in Beijing, but this time I've never experienced anything like it in my life. It was the best feeling in the world."
Smith's bronze medal at Beijing 2008 was Britain's first for 80 years. Britain has had little history of success in the sport and this marks the first occasion in modern men’s gymnastics that a British men's team has reached the Olympic final.
Kristian Thomas and Dan Purvis will feature in the all-around final having qualified in fifth and 10th respectively, the 23-year-old Thomas scoring 90.256 overall to Uchimura's 89.764. Danell Leyva of the United States top-scored with 91.265.
A score of 15.983 also secured Thomas a place in the vault final as the fifth best, while Max Whitlock joins Smith in the pommel horse final. Whitlock's 14.900 qualified him in eighth.
