MEDALS TABLE

Scotland overcame injury and not a little adversity to clinch bronze in the men’s team gymnastics final as England secured an expected gold.

Led by double Olympic champion Max Whitlock, the defending champions had few problems in retaining the title they took at Glasgow 2014, scoring the highest overall tallies in each of the six apparatus 0 Hamish Carter, Kelvin Cham, Frank Baines, David Weir and Daniel Purvis met their challenges to take the bronze medal. pieces to advance their total to 258.950.

Canada eased to silver but the quintet of Dan Purvis, Frank Baines, Hamish Carter, Kelvin Cham and David Weir survived a gruelling examination. “We’re feeling so proud,” said Purvis, the Olympic medallist who was one of two remnants of the squad that landed silver four years ago.

“Glasgow 2014 was such a big battle. It was fantastic. But this was a different team, a younger team.

“The aim was to get back on that podium. It wasn’t looking too bright at the start. We had a shaky pommel. After the vault, we started to knuckle down and really hit those routines. Hamish was the Steady Eddie of the team. We all managed to pull it out on the floor to get on that podium.”

Weir was asked to step up once Cham sustained an injury on the rings which precluded him from competing on the parallel bars. The 19-year-old student from Ayrshire contributed just enough to help fend off Cyprus. “He’s the man of the match,” said Carter. “He just stepped in and was able to put up a score just as good.”

With the team event providing a qualification pathway into the individual disciplines beginning this weekend, it will give the Scots multiple opportunities for solo success on top.

Purvis, in what will be his final Games at the age of 27, had prioritised this competition above all others but he is optimistic there may be the chance of a fifth Commonwealth medal, or perhaps more despite missing out on a spot in the all-round event.

“It was good. Some of the routines, I thought I might have scored a little higher. The parallel bars for instance.

“I’ll have to look at my routines back again. But this wasn’t individual. It was about the team.”