Harry Hepworth, Luke Whitehouse, Max Whitlock in agonising fourth-place finish in Olympic team final

Despite a valiant effort, particularly from an inspired Harry Hepworth of Leeds, Great Britain’s men fell agonisingly short in last night’s gymnastics team final at the Bercy Arena.

The squad, led by multiple Olympic champion Max Whitlock and including Hepworth and his Leeds Gymnastics Club team-mate Luke Whitehouse finished fourth, as Great Britain’s wait for a first medal in the team event since London 2012 goes on.

On a day when Britain won six medals in Paris led by golds for Yorkshireman Tom Pidcock in the mountain biking and the eventing team, plus silvers in equestrian, canoeing, swimming and diving from the evergreen Tom Daley, the gymnasts were unable to add a bronze in a tight contest.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At a packed Bercy Arena, nowhere near as partisan a Parisian crowd as other venues at these Games due to the lack of French involvement, Japan snatched gold from China on the final rotation.

Great Britain's Luke Whitehouse performs on the Horizontal Bar during the Men's Team Final at Bercy Arena (Picture: PA)Great Britain's Luke Whitehouse performs on the Horizontal Bar during the Men's Team Final at Bercy Arena (Picture: PA)
Great Britain's Luke Whitehouse performs on the Horizontal Bar during the Men's Team Final at Bercy Arena (Picture: PA)

The United States took bronze with Great Britain coming home fourth.

Hepworth, 20, from Leeds, produced some stellar performances on his apparatus including a score of 14.800 on the rings.

“There’ll be that initial disappointment but it’s fourth in the world, it’s still an unbelievable achievement,” said Hepworth, who was revelling in the atmosphere of his first Olympics.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We gave it everything, we’ll just be a bit sad for the next day but then we’ll realise we did really well.

“We’ll get back in the gym, work hard and next time get a bronze.

“After the first two pieces, pommel and rings, I did have a little bit of hope after that but as the competition went on we started going down a little bit.”

His clubmate Whitehouse, 22, from Halifax, also making his Olympic debut, handled himself admirably but had a slip on the vault.

“I don’t know what went wrong there,” said Whitehouse.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The whole team came up to me and told me not to worry, it was still very early on in the competition, we still had a lot of pieces to go so it was all still to play for.

“Going into floor I felt a bit of pressure but I can take a lot of confidence from this competition going into the finals.

“Really proud that I came back, I was upset but the team got behind me and I went out on the floor and I did my job.”

Whitlock, the double Olympic champion on the pommel horse and part of the team that won bronze in London, produced Britain’s best performance with a 15.266 on that apparatus.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But it was not enough as Britain missed out on bronze by 2.66 points to finish fourth for the third Games in a row.

Whitlock said: “It was hard and I’m really gutted. I think fourth is always difficult, we’ve come fourth quite a few times now which is rough, right now it feels quite raw but overall we can be quite proud, looking at each and every performance we did everything we possibly could.”

Hepworth still has the individual rings and vault finals to come later in the Games, while Whitehouse has the floor to come, a discipline in which he is the two-time reigning European champion.

“It gives me a lot of confidence,” said Hepworth. “I’ll just continue working over the next few days, use this today and do some good routines.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Whitehouse added: “Being back-to-back to European champion I can take confidence, I know I’ve done the routines in training so I’ll take confidence from that.

“It just needs executing a lot better, although to be fair it was a decent routine today, we’ve got a couple of days to work on it now and hopefully I can get a bigger score in the final.”

News you can trust since 1754
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice