British gymnasts on course for European Championship title defence
Wolverhampton's Kristian Thomas and the British men's gymnastics team are aiming to retain their European Championship crown tomorrow.
The experienced team of Sam Oldham, Dan Keatings, Dan Purvis, Max Whitlock and Thomas looked in fine shape yesterday as they finished top of the qualifying standings in Sofia.
Olympic bronze medallist Thomas, 25, will also go for individual glory on Sunday after qualifying for the final of the high bar.
The British routines stood out as combining high difficulty with great control, their big competition experience– each gymnast an Olympian – being a key feature of the team.
Max Whitlock was the stand out performer for the team as he posted the highest individual competition score but all five competed well, an effort which will need to be repeated in order to top the medal podium in the final.
"It's a great as team that we've topped the standings and continue our form from when we took the gold last time," said Whitlock.
"We try not to the think about the pressure or expectation going in to it, each of us knows what we are capable of and knows how hard we work in the gym every day for competitions like this and the aim is always to go out and put all that hard work into the routines on the day.
"Personally of course I'm really happy with my performance and looking forward to the apparatus finals but the main target for this event is the team and we have only completed part of the job, we now need to focus ready for the final."
Thomas showed some unique skills on the high bar to impress the judges and score 14.891, which was enough to see him through to the final along with Oldham.
And though he missed out on the vault final after sitting down on his second attempt, his first scored 15.200 to make a big contribution to the team's overall total.
Whitlock posted the highest score on the floor and will be joined in that final by Purvis, who finished just behind.