Brit gymnasts bag Euro gold

Great Britain's men produced an outstanding performance to take gold in the team event at the artistic gymnastics European Championships in Montpellier.

Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Louis Smith, Ruslan Panteyleymonov and Max Whitlock became the first British line-up to ever take a major championships team gold medal.

It was the perfect result ahead of the London Olympics, with the team impressing on the floor, pommel horse, rings, vault and parallel bars before a score of 15.133 from Thomas on the high bar secured victory.

Britain's winning score was 266.296 to see off the challenges of Russia (265.535) and Romania (261.319)

"I didn't know what score I needed on the high bar, I just knew I needed to go clear," Thomas said afterwards.

"We've worked so hard in the gym to prepare for days like this and with the support of the lads I managed to pull through, we're so proud."

The success followed on from Britain's junior team claiming European gold on Wednesday, with Frank Baines and Nile Wilson finishing first and second in the junior all-around event yesterday.

British Gymnastics Olympic performance director Tim Jones admits the timing could not have been better with the Games just 60 days away.

He said: "Today's a really important step looking ahead to London, and a fantastic achievement.

"There will be a lot of people who thought they would never see this day and to have both the junior and seniors as champions of Europe is a tremendous result."