GB finish fourth in Brussels

An inexperienced Great Britain team finished fourth at the Women's Artistic Gymnastics European Championship in Brussels on Saturday.

The team of Hannah Whelan, Jennifer Pinches, Danusia Francis, Rebecca Tunney and Ruby Harrold finished with a total of 167.763 points, just over three adrift of Italy in the bronze medal position. Romania took gold and Russia silver.

Mistakes on the beam were the only errors from a British team missing Beth Tweddle, Imogen Cairns and Rebecca Downie, with Whelan and Pinches both falling.

They recovered to finish well on the floor and vault, though.

Whelan, who will compete in the beam and floor finals on Sunday, said: "I'm a little bit disappointed not to get a medal, it's a shame but we will learn from it and fourth is still a great result for us.

"It shows how strong we are that with mistakes we are still in the medal hunt and I think when we look back we can all be very proud of this team, and it certainly looks good for the future that we have so much depth of talent."

Harrold added: "I'm really happy and pleased to have got the vault out having practised a lot at the national centre - it's great to then produce it in a European final."

Tunney said: "I had good performances all round and I'm really happy with how the team have done. I was nervous coming into this event but think I've coped really well. To make no mistakes in all my routines so far is brilliant."

Tunney also competes in the floor final, with Harrold on bars.