Rio Olympics 2016 Gymnastics: Max Whitlock wins bronze men's all-around final

Bronze medalist: Whitlock secured Britain's first medal in the event for over 100 years
Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Mark Staniforth11 August 2016

Great Britain's Max Whitlock won the bronze medal in the men's all-around gymnastics final at the Olympic Park on Wednesday.

Reigning champion Kohei Uchimura claimed a dramatic gold medal with a stunning final performance on the parallel bars to overhaul Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev, who took silver.

Whitlock thrillingly fought off China's Chaopin Lin and Nikolai Kuksenkov of Russia to clinch his third Olympic bronze medal, after placing third in pommel and team in London.

Whitlock had opened on his favoured piece of apparatus, scoring 15.875, which despite being lower than his total in the team final on Monday, gave him a slight advantage over Uchimura.

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Uchimura reversed the placings after the second rotation, scoring 14.900 on the pommel, despite Whitlock improving his score on the rings with 14.733.

But at the half-way stage it was Verniaiev, the 2014 world champion on the parallel bars, who emerged as the front runner, shattering the notion that it would be a straight shoot-out between Whitlock and Uchimura, with the Briton in silver medal position and the Japanese star in bronze.

A strong vault from Uchimura pulled him above Whitlock and moved him closer to Verniaiev after rotation four, while a less difficult routine from Whitlock on the parallel bars saw him slip slightly behind, although he remained comfortably clear of fourth-placed Chinese gymnast Chaopan Lin.

Surviving the high bar unscathed with a score of 14.700, Whitlock nevertheless saw the gap increase ahead of him, a huge performance from Verniaiev in eclipsing Uchimura on the parallel bars leaving him with the gold medal for the taking.

Whitlock's floor routine was polished if unspectacular, earning him 15.200 for a total of 90.641. It proved enough to see off his rivals and earn a place on the podium.

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