Max Whitlock wins apparatus gold at European Gymnastics Championships
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Version 0 of 1. Max Whitlock saw off the challenge of the Olympic pommel horse champion, Krisztian Berki, to win gold on the apparatus at the European Gymnastics Championships in Sofia on Sunday. Whitlock, who claimed bronze behind silver medallist Louis Smith at London 2012, produced a routine which scored 16.166 – a score which would have eclipsed Berki’s Olympic gold medal-winning mark by a tenth of a point. The Hemel Hempstead-born gymnast was the sixth to compete on the apparatus and set an unassailable target after surpassing Hungarian Berki’s score of 15.633. Meanwhile, Dan Purvis won a bronze medal in the floor final behind Russia’s Denis Ablyazin and Greece’s Elfetherios Kosmidis with a routine of 15.400. Whitlock finished in fifth place with 15.333. Sam Oldham and Kristian Thomas were also in action on the final day in the high bar final. Oldham won his second silver medal of the competition, to add to the team silver won on Saturday, as he scored 14.866 to finish behind Olympic champion Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands (15.866), while Thomas won bronze with 14.808. It capped an impressive week for the British men, with the juniors also tasting success with a record medal haul on the final day of the action. Nile Wilson was the star taking the pommel, parallel bars and high bar titles, with Giarnni Regini-Moran winning floor gold and vault silver, Brinn Bevan rings and parallel bars silver and Jay Thompson floor silver. |