Keatings leads full team to Olympics

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 I think 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 cut a little bit of difficulty out so I knew I was going to nail the routines.

“I was excited about competing here. I’m proud of my team-mates that we made it and that everyone held their nerve and we got the qualification.”

Keatings was also proud to be part of the first British men’s team to secure a full quota of five gymnasts since the 1992 Games in Barcelona. Their qualification has ensured a full British complement in artistic gymnastics at the Olympics as the women’s team qualified by taking fifth place overall in Tokyo.

“It’s amazing how far British gymnastics has come,” Keatings said. “It just shows the strength we have in the team.

“Obviously there was going to be nerves as it was the last qualification event for the Olympics but inside I knew we could always do it.

“We’ve worked really hard since the disappointing World Championships and really pulled together.

“There’s still a lot to do before the Olympics. We’ve qualified five places at the Olympics, a full team, but we had six places in the team for this event so there’s a lot of work to do and everyone will be fighting for those places.”

As well as Keatings, Purvis and Thomas, the six-man team also included Louis Smith, Max Whitlock and Ruslan Panteleymonov.

Smith, a 22-year-old pommel horse specialist, believes the possibilities for British men’s gymnastics are endless.

“We’ve been smashing records and doing all sorts over the past few years,” Smith said.

“To qualify a team for the first time in 20 years, it shows what these guys are capable of.

“When we pull together and get the job done, we’re focused and not stressed out we can do well in the competition.

“It just shows how good the guys can be when they’re in the right frame of mind and they’re fit and focused. The team atmosphere is brilliant.”

The GB men showed a great improvement on their performance at the World Championships in Tokyo last October where the disastrous performance on the horizontal bar and a low score on rings derailed their qualification.

Smith is confident those demons have now been laid to rest, and believes as a team and individuals, the GB men are ready to kick on and make a serious bid for Olympic medals.

“There’s always going to be a case of that happened, this happened, but I think we’ve proved to the nation, the media and to ourselves that we can do it,” he added.

“If we stay focused we can achieve pretty much anything. I think we would have got a bronze medal in the World Championships with that score. If we stay focused, the possibilities are endless.”

Purvis added: “We’ve all worked hard after the World Championships and during Christmas we got our heads down. It’s great that all the hard work paid off and it’s really looking good for the Olympics.

“British gymnastics has come on so much and the juniors behind us are looking even better so it’s a really bright future.”