DAN Purvis stamped his passport for Rio by leading Great Britain to team silver at the European Championships in Bern.
The Southport-based Scot, who competes in the individual floor today, produced solid performances on all six pieces of apparatus and was the cornerstone on which the British team built their podium place.
Even without leading light Max Whitlock, who had to pull out of the team due to a viral illness, the GB team were strong enough to go toe to toe with Russia for the gold.
There was just a point between the teams at the halfway stage and the result was in doubt right up until the final high bar routine.
Purvis, one of the Sunday Herald’s six to follow in the run-up to Rio, knew before the championships there was no margin for error regarding Olympic selection given the strength in depth of British gymnastics, but he did not flinch and met the challenge full-on.
He opened with 15.066 on the floor, his favourite disciplinepiece of apparatus, and then followed up with 14.500 on the pommels, 14.633 on the rings, 14.866 on the vault, 14.700 on the parallel bars and finished with 14.166 on the high bar.
It was a top quality all-round performance, with City of Leeds youngster Nile Wilson also contributing points on all of the six pieces of apparatus. It was the foundations of GB’s medal success with Louis Smith producing an outstanding performance on the pommel horse, Kristian Thomas excelling on the vault and Courtney Tulloch, Whitlock’s replacement, contributing on the rings.
Great Britain reached a total of 268.427 points, more than a point higher than their qualifying score. They needed one of the Russians to have a fall from the high bar to snatch the gold, but their rivals, needing an average of 13.438, performed well to cement the gold with 271.378 points.
It served a warning to the British team ahead of Rio but, with Whitlock back, GB will be confident of turning the tables.
If Purvis and his team-mates looked slightly disappointed as the Russians celebrated regaining the title alongside them, when the dust settled it was clear how rewarding the day had been.
“It was a great competition with lots of positives for us individually and as a team,” Thomas said. “The main focus at these championships is to use them to help us be at our best for Rio and I think we can all be happy that we have done that and of course it’s great to have a medal for our country.”
Louis Smith echoed that sent- iment: “It’s incredible and means a lot to me personally to have won the silver medal with these guys. For us to have completed 18 clean routines in qualifying and the final shows we are on track. This is very much a build-up event to Rio and we all still have more to give which is a huge positive.”
Switzerland, who have also qualified for the Olympics, upset the odds to finish third (263.278) ahead of fourth-placed Ukraine (257.696).
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