Gymnasts smiling in spite of late medal alteration

The men’s team of Louis Smith, Max Whitlock, Daniel Purvis, Sam Oldham and Kristian Thomas claimed third amid controversial circumstances.

But their achievement nevertheless drew delighted applause from a packed North Greenwich Arena audience which included Princes William and Harry.

The British team scored a total of 271.711 points just nine months after finishing 10th at the world championships.

They were initially awarded silver but an inquiry into the score of Kohei Uchimura’s pommel horse routine saw Japan claim silver and Britain were downgraded to bronze. China retained their gold medal with Japan leapfrogging Britain’s score with an upgraded total of 271.952.

But the controversy could not overshadow the achievement of the British gymnasts, who won the country’s first Olympic team medal since the bronze at the Stockholm Games in 1912.

The accomplishment takes Britain’s tally to three medals, with no gold medals achieved yet by the host nation at London 2012.

Other than the gymnasts, it was a day of near misses for the hosts with crowd favourite Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield blowing a lead in diving’s 10m synchro and Liam Tancock and Gemma Spofforth finishing fifth in their respective swimming finals.

The only other medals so far have come via Rebecca Adlington’s bronze from lane eight in the 400m freestyle, and Otley’s Lizzie Armitstead, who clinched a thrilling silver in the women’s road race on Sunday.

It looked like being a second silver at North Greenwich Arena last night until Japan’s score was upgraded.

It came as a huge shock to both the gymnasts and the home crowd, with boos reverberating around the arena as Britain were stripped of their silver medal.

A medal of any colour exceeded all expectations for the British team with bronze looking like the best they could hope for against the gymnastics powerhouses of the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

In a tense finale, it looked as if they had done enough to secure the bottom step on the podium after going head-to-head with Ukraine on the last piece of apparatus as the United States faded away.

Ukraine were in bronze medal position and Japan in silver with the final rotation to go, but brilliant performances on the floor by Whitlock, Purvis and Thomas saw them seal their place on the podium, as Japan faltered and finished in fourth.

However, there was a twist in the tale, as Japan launched an inquiry into three-time world champion Uchimura’s score, leaving Britain patiently waiting to learn their fate.

When the result came through, delight turned to shock for Britain as they saw the silver medal torn from their fingers, meaning they took their place on the bottom step of the podium.

Smith, a surprise bronze medallist on the pommel horse in Beijing, said: “The whole situation hasn’t sunk in. Despite that protest and the score change, for us, this is a dream come true.

“To get a bronze medal is a miracle. Silver, bronze, it doesn’t matter. We really look up to the Japanese and they deserved the silver medal.

“We were still happy and still clapping. It was nice to see Japan winning a medal.

“We have the bronze medal on our necks, who cares about silver?”

Smith’s dismissal of the colour stems from how far the team have come in such a short space of time.

At last year’s world championships in Tokyo they finished 10th, meaning they did not qualify straight away for the Olympics.

Smith added: “We got to the Games via the test event in January. It has been a tough couple of years.

“Who would have thought since Tokyo that we could achieve this result? It’s crazy, can you believe it?”

Although it was a heroic performance from all five British gymnasts on the six pieces of apparatus, the hosts thought the opportunity had slipped through their fingers when Oldham fell on the high bars. But Whitlock, Purvis and Thomas produced oustanding floor programmes to rekindle their medal hopes. Thomas had earlier posted a score of of 16.550 on the vault, the highest of any competitor on that particular apparatus.

Thomas said: “It’s a pretty difficult vault and it doesn’t happen that often that someone gets a score like this.

“I’m overwhelmed by it all, it’s absolutely fantastic. I’m so happy to be part of this team.

“We weren’t really paying much attention to the results, which I think is quite important, so we could focus on our routines.

“It wasn’t until we got to floor (last apparatus) that I heard a few little rumours where we were.”