Nile Wilson was proud of the team’s performance despite falling just short of repeating the London 2012 bronze medal success as the men’s artistic gymnastics team finished fourth in this evening’s final.
A score of 269.752 from the quintet of Wilson, Brinn Bevan, Louis Smith, Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock wasn’t enough for a podium place as Japan took gold with 274.094. Russia (271.453) and China (271.122) took silver and bronze respectively.
The team sat third at the halfway mark but headed into their final apparatus, the pommel, in fourth, knowing they needed to score highly to leapfrog either China or Russia to win a third ever Olympic team gymnastics medal.
For Olympic debutant Wilson, who competes in the all-around and high bar final later this week, the team can hold their heads up high following the performance at Rio 2016.
“It was an incredible final and there was some incredible gymnastics but it wasn’t our day today,” said Wilson.
“We went out there and gave it our all and I think we can be proud of that. We’ve got individual finals now and we’re positive.
“The Japanese at the minute are the complete next level and we’re always striving to be up there. We’ve certainly improved our difficulty since last year’s World Championships and with the last piece on pommel we had to go full out and go for the full difficulty but it just didn’t come off today.”
And the 20-year-old from Leeds admitted that despite the performance he couldn’t get enough of his debut Olympic appearance.
“I’m loving every second of my first Olympics and really happy and proud to be representing my country on the biggest stage of them all,” added Wilson.
“I put out some great routines today, particularly the high bar, so I’m looking forward to the individual final.”