GYMNASTICS: Great Britain and China took home all the medals on offer in the men’s individual all–around and apparatus competition.

China’s Ruoteng Xiao, quashed Great Britain’s hopes of winning both the team (on Friday) and individual all-around golds, when he clinched victory on 84.700 points.

Great Britain’s Dominick Cunningham had to settle for silver (83.650), performing strongly across all apparatus.

“I knew it was possible I just needed to keep my head clear, and I knew with the high bar which was my last piece that I had the podium right there, I tried to not put added pressure on myself and I’m really happy with my results,” 17-year-old Cunningham said.

With a floor routine that prompted ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd, Cunningham positioned himself as a fierce contender from the beginning , inevitably winning gold for floor.

“The floor was my strongest, “Cunningham said, admitting that he felt his weakest routine of the day was the pommel finishing sixth.

Cunningham’s compatriot Nile Wilson drew for all-around bronze on 84.600 points with China’s Di Wu.

Wilson produced an impressive parallel bar routine, which gave him the apparatus gold. Wilson also won gold in the high bar and bronze in both pommel and rings. However his floor routine (83.600) pushed his overall score down.

Team GB produced another multi-medallist, James Hall, who proudly tied first with Cunningham on the floor and bronze in vault, as well as winning silver in pommel.

“After the team event I wasn’t expecting a high score like the other boys but today I changed my (floor) routine up a bit. Then to join first was a bit of a shock but a nice surprise as well,” 17-year-old Hall said. “There were a couple of bits where I had a bit of a wobble, like the parallel bars, and I need to clean up in the high bar but overall I’m quite pleased.”

China stepped up as a major threat to Team GB, with Ruoteng winning gold in pommel, silver in vault and high bar and bronze in parallel bars. Teammate Di Wu won vault.

Great Britain’s fourth team member Courtney Tulloch started the competition off with a powerful floor routine, however due to a slip in vault and falling off high bar Tulloch only went home with gold in rings.

Australia and New Zealand were definitely out of their comfort zone, and dominated by the other two nations failed to make the podium.

Brittany Lane
Olympics.com.au

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