Great Britain have won their first women’s team gymnastics medal since 1928 as Alice Kinsella, Amelie Morgan and twin sisters Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova produced a sensational performance to take bronze in Tuesday night’s final.
The quartet had only qualified sixth for the final and were down in seventh of the eight finalists at the midway point of the competition.
However, five scores of more than 14.000 out of their last six performances on bars and vault saw them storm through to pip Italy, Japan and France, with less than a point splitting the four teams.
The Russian Olympic Committee took gold, matching the feat of their men’s team on Monday night, winning with a total score of 169.528 ahead of the USA, who were without star name Simone Biles for three of their four rotations.
Biles had left the arena after faltering on the opening piece of apparatus, the vault, and though she returned she did not compete any further, with USA Gymnastics stating that her absence was due to a “medical issue”.
“I never thought this was possible but it is and just it is has gone beyond what I ever expected and what I ever dreamed of, I am just speechless and don’t really know what to say and to feel, it is just incredible,” Jessica Gadirova said.
“She [Jennifer] means the world to me, she is everything. She has been with me every second since we touched this earth and to experience this and medal with her is just amazing.
“Just making history and putting our names out there, we are just stronger together really.”
