Russian Olympic Committee win gymnastics gold

Dates: 23 July-8 August Time in Tokyo: BST +8
Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app.

The Russian Olympic Committee held on in the final round to take gymnastics men’s team gold at the Tokyo Games as Great Britain finished fourth.

The ROC led from the second of six rotations and Nikita Nagornyy’s final floor routine gave them 262.500 points.

Japan’s efforts on the horizontal bar helped them claim silver on 262.397, pushing China into bronze with 261.894.

Britain’s team of Max Whitlock, Joe Fraser, James Hall and Giarnni Regini-Moran finished on 255.760.

Gold will be particularly sweet for the ROC’s Artur Dalaloyan, who partially tore his Achilles in April and was so determined to return for the Olympics that he had a training mat put next to his hospital bed.

GB were fifth going into their final rotation on the pommel horse, but two-time Olympic champion Whitlock helped them climb above the USA with an impressive score of 14.966.

Regini-Moran told BBC Sport he “wanted to come out and enjoy every moment” because the event was his “last competition”.

Whitlock, part of the team that finished fourth in the event at Rio 2016, said: “We knew it would take a lot to break into the medals. We can look back and be really proud.”

Who are the Russian Olympic Committee?

Russia are banned from competing in all major sporting events after a doping scandal.

Russian athletes are allowed to compete under a neutral flag and that is how the ROC team came about.

Because the team are neutral, a flag bearing the Olympic rings is flown and the Olympic theme is played instead of the Russian national anthem when Russian athletes win gold.

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source: bbc.com