Having just missed out on an all-around medal Max Whitlock admitted it was a relief to not leave the World Championships empty handed after claiming pommel horse silver.
Whitlock won team and pommel horse bronze at London 2012 but his chances of claiming a double in Antwerp ended in the all-around as he fell just short of the podium, finishing fourth.
But the 20-year-old wasn’t about to let his second opportunity slip through his fingers and produced the most difficult routine of the final to score 15.633 to finish second.
Whitlock’s score saw him tie for the silver medal with Mexico’s Corrall Barron with Japan’s Kohei Kameyama taking the gold.
And in his first-ever World Championships Whitlock insisted he was more than happy to have made up for his all-around disappointment on the pommel horse.
“I’m very happy with silver, to just miss out coming fourth in all-around and now to have a medal – I’m over the moon,” he said.
“It was a 7.2 start score and to be honest I’m just happy to make it through the routine, it was a little bit scruffy and there’s room for improvement but I really can’t complain with a World Championship silver medal to cap a great year for me.”
Elsewhere, Daniel Purvis narrowly missed out on a medal in the floor final as he finished fourth.
Purvis scored 15.400 for his routine, narrowly short of a place on the podium while Japan’s Kenzo Shirai took gold with 16.000.
“Going in to it I just wanted to enjoy it and then as it progressed it thought – I can get quite close here and was really happy to nail my routine, my best of the championships,” said Purvis.
“I’ve been strong all week and I’m really satisfied and proud of my World Championships. I knew that Shirai was last up so enjoyed being in third for a while but knew realistically he is at another level.”
Meanwhile, in the bars final, Rubay Harrold finished seventh with 14.333 and Becky Downie was one place further back with a score of 13.800.
© Sportsbeat 2013