24. May 2014  
Sofia, Bulgaria  
Turn-EM, Männer

Russia won Team Title to the third time in front of Great Britain and Ukraine

Russia wins third Eropean Team Title

With voltage, the first decision of the 36th Men's European Championships of artistic Gymnastics was expected: While the title race looks well everything after a duel between Britains and Russia - both nations had already been twice Team European Champion, the Brits were also the defending champions.
But today RUSSIAN men's team was the best and scored 267,959 points and won the European title to the third time (after Volos 2006 and Lausanne 2008).

The silver medal went to the title holder from 2012 (Montpellier), to GREAT BRITAIN, with 265,953 points. To the very first time UKRAINE won a medal on third place, thanks especially to its outstanding athlete Oleg Verniaiew, with altogether 262,087 points.
Germany compared with the preliminaries improved by three places and finished fourth at the team final (260,711) today, followed by France, the Netherlands, Romania and Belarus.

The GYMmedia ECh coverages are supported by SPIETH Gymnastics

* 36th MEN's  Artistic Gymnastics Europeans
      - Sofia (BUL), Armeec-Arena -
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* Saturday, May 24i
* TEAM-FINAL
   The Finalsts are: GBR - RUS - UKR - BLR - FRA - NED - GER - ROU
     >> S t a r t  l i s t 
... Belarus and Germany started on floor; - Russia & Roumania on pommel horse
... Great Britain & Ukraine on still rings and Netherlands & France on vault ...
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... this is the British comment shortly after the end of competition:

Sam Oldham, Dan Keatings, Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock and Dan Purvis put in a great performance but weren’t quite able to topple Russia who took the gold scoring 267.959 to Britain’s 265.953 points with Ukraine in bronze. The format of the competition meant three of the five strong team competed on each apparatus and every score counted to the team total.  

The British boys counted no major errors in their routines with a few small faults at the beginning of the competition costing them the chance to retain their title; however they fought back superbly on floor and pommel horse to secure an excellent silver.  Standout routines from Max Whitlock on floor and pommel and Sam Oldham on vault and high bar were the highlights with all the gymnasts contributing well to the team total.
The silver medal continues a fine week for the men’s team who have already claimed junior team gold and junior all-around gold and bronze with more medal opportunities to come in Sunday’s apparatus finals.

Kristian Thomas said after: “ We left our selves a bit too much to do with a few early mistakes but the character we showed was fantastic, we are a very tight group and we all worked hard for each other and are really happy to have fought so hard and won the silver.”

Sam Oldham added: “This performance just shows what a great team we are, we win as a team and we fight as a team. It takes a lot of character to do what we did today and I’m really proud of all the boys.”
* R e s u l t s
►► TEAM FINAL