'Fantastic' says Smith
Louis Smith spoke to Sky Sports News after GB's men's team qualified for the Olympics.
Last Updated: 11/01/12 12:36pm
Great Britain gymnast Louis Smith described to Sky Sports News as "fantastic" the performance of the men's team in qualifying for the London Olympic Games.
Smith and team-mates Daniel Purvis, Daniel Keatings, Max Whitlock, Kristian Thomas and Ruslan Panteleymonov finished first in the London Prepares test event at North Greenwich, meaning that Great Britain will take a full men's artistic team to the Olympics for the first time in 20 years.
"Fantastic! I mean, I'm drained from shouting for four hours but I'm so proud of the guys - they did wicked. I managed to get through my routine and the guys pulled through," said Smith, 22, who won a bronze medal on the pommel horse at Beijing in 2008.
The team showed a great improvement on their performance at the World Championships in Tokyo last October, where a poor display on the high bar helped derail their qualification chances.
However, Great Britain quickly exorcised their demons with an assured performance in the discipline on Tuesday.
"We started on high bar, which is what we messed up the most in the world championships. The guys did their routines and absolutely smashed them out the water. They were fantastic," Smith said.
"The atmosphere here was great. There were so many people here to support us. It was really good."