GB gymnasts secure 2012 places at Olympic Test London

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GB gymnasts looking for home advantage to secure 2012 places at Olympic Test London

... And they did it

Let no one doubt the value of Britain's sportsmen playing at "home" for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Proof, if any were needed, came with the British men's gymnast team who clinched their place in the sun this summer when they won the Olympic test event at the 02 Arena in London in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd.

A place in the top four guaranteed the team a place in the Olympics but after their tenth position in Tokyo in the main qualifying event, there were some doubts about the mental strength of the squad.

There were no problems and, backed by the enthusiastic crowd, the beat the French into second place to qualify a full team for the Games for the first time since Barcelona 1992.

Led by Dan Purvis's brilliant all-round performance, along with team-mates Daniel Keatings, Louis Smith, Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas and Ruslan Panteleymonov, the team triumphed with a total of 358.227 points ahead of France, Spain and Italy, who all qualified. Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Belarus were the four teams who missed out.

Dan Keatings added: "It was a blessing in disguise what happened in Tokyo [because] we could come here and compete in front of a home crowd.

"We've got an advantage now. We've felt what the pressure in there is going to be like and we're looking forward to the Olympics now.

"The home fans are amazing. It gives that buzz around the arena. It gives you that extra boost going on to pieces [of apparatus].

"It is quite scary, jumping up on high bar first. I had to really calm my nerves, but the fans were amazing today."

Purvis scored 89.948 for the six pieces of apparatus to top the individual all-round standings ahead of Thomas, with Keatings third.

"After Tokyo everyone was a bit depressed but we got back in the gym and put our heads down," said Purvis.

"We knew we weren't going to have Christmas. I was really impressed with everyone getting stuck in and it paid off.

"The other teams [who qualified in Tokyo] don't get to do this. We get to test the equipment out and the atmosphere was amazing here, so hopefully we'll be more prepared for the Olympics."

Had Britain performed to this standard in Tokyo, they would have finished fifth in the world final, narrowly behind Russia. However, the team played it safe here and have much more in their armoury for the Olympic Games. A new, internal battle now begins - seven gymnasts made the trip here but only five can be chosen for the GB Olympic team this summer
Whitlock, who competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games for England and was making his senior GB debut, put in an impressive performance as he outscored Olympic bronze medallist Smith on the pommel horse.

However, Smith, who was team captain and only performed on one piece of apparatus, was not performing his toughest routine, preferring to save that for the Olympics.

"It was a scary competition," said Smith. "It was a qualifier for the Olympic Games and the guys handled it brilliantly. It just shows the depth of our squad and how we can perform if we do hit those routines."

Smith fell when competing at the 2009 World Championships at the same venue and said he was glad to put that behind him with a good performance this time around.

"In 2009, I was a lot younger and it wasn't long after the 2008 Olympic Games. I've grown up a bit now. I've learnt the tricks of the trade.

"It was tough coming here for just one piece. I'm team captain so it was nice to put in a strong routine and the celebration got the crowd going a bit."

Britain's women had qualified a full team for the London Olympics by virtue of reaching the team final at the 2011 World Championships, held in Tokyo last November.

With qualification safely in the bag, the two GB women sent to compete at this week's test event - Jocelyn Hunt and Rebecca Tunney - are younger members of the squad. Senior stars such as Beth Tweddle turned up on Tuesday to support Britain's men from the stands.

There is one more British qualification issue to be settled before the test event is complete, as GB women's rhythmic gymnasts take to the floor next Monday and Tuesday.

If they can pull off a score of 45.223 or higher at the test event - approximately 80% of the top score at the last World Championships - the British Olympic Association will send a rhythmic gymnastics team to take up the host-nation place available at the Olympics.

9 January 2012
A top four place out of eight competing teams will be enough for GB's artistic team to secure a full quote of Olympic gymnasts in London next week.

With no injuries or any other concerns the men will be confident of following their female team mates to a 2012 place after the girls clinched their places on Saturday in Tokyo.

The men failed to match them and did not qualify in Tokyo as they hoped but there is huge optimism that they will come through the London test event when eight teams go looking for those top four places.

To stars Louis Smith and Dan Keatings will lead Great Britain men's artistic team along with Kristian Thomas, Daniel Purvis, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Max Whitlock and reserve Sam Hunter.

If the unthinkable were to happen and the men's team fail to qualify en bloc they would be restricted to just one male gymnast is 2012 with Purvis and Smith competing for the honour depending on their individual results.

They missed their first chance to qualify for London 2012 at the World Gymnastics Championships last October.

Olympic performance director Tim Jones said: "With the amount of experience we are able to call upon, we remain confident and are backing ourselves to produce a reliable and professional performance.

"This will give us the best chance of qualifying a full team for the 2012 Olympic Games."

The British rhythmic team have a benchmark score to aim for in their bid to secure a host country place at the Games, with Francesca Jones (Individual), Georgina Cassar, Jade Faulkner, Francesca Fox, Lynne Hutchison, Louisa Pouli and Rachel Smith making up the team.

Performance director Steve Green said: "We have the possibility of making history if the group achieves their target score of 45.223 over the two routines. If the benchmark score is achieved a nomination will be submitted to the BOA to accept a host country place.
"For the individual place, the test event will act as a warm-up to experience the enormity of a home Olympic Games in readiness for the real thing at Wembley in August. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for rhythmic gymnastics to profile itself at the biggest show on earth."

The test event will take place from 10-18 January at the North Greenwich Arena, with fellow Britons Kat Driscoll (trampoline) and Jocelyn Hunt and Rebecca Tunney (women's artistic) also in action.

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