Gymnasts take it to the Max but again settle for the silver
HIGH bar heartache hit Britain’s men’s gymnastics team led by Max Whitlock as they settled for silver behind Russia for the third Europeans in a row.
The five-strong team had dragged back a significant deficit to almost a point heading on to the last piece of apparatus in Glasgow but falls by Dominick Cunningham and James Hall were costly.
It paved the way for a series of competitive individual finals today in which double Olympic king Whitlock will again take centre stage.
Despite improving his floor routine, Whitlock struggled on his favoured pommel and was marked down to a lowly 14.433 after being deemed to have missed one of his elements.
Today Whitlock will come up against Rhys McClenaghan and Russia’s David Belyavskiy, both of whom eclipsed him in qualifying. But Whitlock vowed: ‘I looked back to London 2012 where I had the mindset to give it everything, and that’s what I’ve got to do again.’
There was more luck in the men’s BMX as Kyle Evans led home Kye Whyte to gold and silver. Evans surged clear in the deciding race at Knightswood Park while Whyte held off Sylvain Andre.
Victory was rich for Evans after eight wrist surgeries.
Matty Lee and Lois Toulson won silver in the mixed 10-metre synchro in home city Edinburgh.
Fellow-Scots Grace Reid and Alicia Blagg won gold and silver in the three-metre springboard.