LOU ARE OUR HEROES ... GB's bronze-winning gymnasts Louis Smith, Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock and Sam Oldham
Last Updated: 31st July 2012
BRITAIN’S gymnasts were robbed of an Olympic silver medal by a marking blunder.
Our brilliant men ended up with an historic team bronze, having been downgraded to third after a successful appeal from Japan.
It was GB’s first medal in the event since a bronze in Stockholm back in 1912.
Hero Louis Smith said: “To get a bronze medal is a miracle. Despite that protest and the score change, for us this is a dream come true.”
The controversy came right at the end.
The five-man British team — and a crowd including Prince William and Prince Harry — had faced a nervous wait at a rocking North Greenwich Arena for the score for Japan’s final competitor on the pommel horse in the last of the six rotations.
When Kohei Uchimura was awarded a modest 13.466 after a dodgy-looking dismount, Team GB seemed sure of second place.
But the Japanese appealed on the grounds the judges had not given Uchimura credit for a skill he had attempted on his dismount.
The extra 0.7 they were given was enough to nudge them ahead of the brave Brits by just 0.241 — and relegate Ukraine to fourth. China took the gold.
Smith, whose pommel horse bronze in Beijing in 2008 kick-started the new era in British male gymnastics, added: “Silver, bronze, it doesn’t matter.
“We were still happy and still clapping. We have the bronze medal around our necks, who cares about silver?”
