Gymnastics: Brits claim Olympic slot

Gymnast Daniel Keatings said he was always sure Great Britain would qualify a full men’s team for the Olympics after they seized their final chance at the North Greenwich arena yesterday.

Britain finished in first place at the London Prepares test event with a total of 358.227, more than eight points clear of France, who also qualified, along with Spain and Italy.

Team GB also secured first, second and third place in the individual all-around standings after brilliant performances by Keatings, Daniel Purvis and Kristian Thomas. Keatings was given the task of competing first on each piece of apparatus and immediately exorcised his demons from the terrible performance at the World Championships in Tokyo by performing an assured high bar routine.

The 22-year-old admitted he had a good feeling about competing at the arena after he won all-around silver at the 2009 World Championships at the same venue. “I always knew this was a good luck arena because of the results that we got in 2009,” Keatings said. “I can’t believe we’ve all put in that performance but we deserved it. I’ve got butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

“I’d been given the job to get the team under way on each piece and try and settle the nerves a bit. I’m proud of my team-mates that we made it and that everyone held their nerve and we got qualification.”