European Championships 2018: Russia triumphs as Britain’s junior gymnasts let European team ti

Five-time European junior men’s champions Great Britain missed out on their chance to win an historic sixth title at The SSE Hydro when they had two falls off the horizontal bar and handed gold to Russia.

Britain were well on their way to a record sixth consecutive gold when it all fell to pieces on their last event. The two falls meant Russia took gold by a margin of 0.833 points after they had won silver in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

The Russians finished their competition with one of their best events, the still rings.

“We didn’t see the mistakes of the British gymnasts [on horizontal bar] before we started on rings,” Mikhail KHUDCHENKO (RUS) said. “Our coach probably did, but we just focused on our rings routines.”

Their total of 240.961 points was just enough to outscore the British team, which scored 240.128 points. The bronze went to Italy, who finished just ahead of Switzerland with 237.895 to 237.829.

Gold in the junior men’s individual all-around competition went to Italy’s Nicolo MOZZATO (80.198), followed by Britain’s Jamie LEWIS (79.731) and Russia’s Sergei NAIDIN (79.598).

The men’s senior gymnastics team final starts on Saturday 11 August at 13:00.

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