U.S. places 5th, Britain snaps 100-year drought in gymnastics

London, England – The United States men's gymnastics team failed to turn a strong qualifying effort into a medal.

For host Great Britain, it experienced success in this event not seen in 100 years.

As China rebounded from a poor showing in Saturday's qualifier to defend its 2008 Olympic gold on Monday, Britain's team grabbed a bronze for its first men's gymnastics medal since the 1912 Games. Team USA finished a disappointing fifth after posting the top score in qualifying.

Japan earned a silver for the second straight Olympics following a score inquiry, which was lodged after the event and lifted it from fourth into the second spot. That dropped Great Britain down to third and Ukraine off the podium.

The Americans came out of Saturday's event confident following a score of 275.342, getting outstanding showings from Danell Leyva and John Orozco. That put them in prime position for their first men's team gold since the boycotted 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

They took bronze in Beijing.

However, the U.S. did not finish higher than third on any of the apparatuses and had the seventh-best score on the pommel horse, with Orozco managing just a 12.733 score in the rotation due to fall. Orozco also failed to stick a vault landing and Leyva fell on the pommel horse as well.

"Things didn't go as planned today. I don't know exactly what happened. We didn't end up where we wanted but we did everything we could after what happened. We just always fight on, no matter what, that's our motto," declared Orozco.

The Americans finished with a score of 269.952, just under two points behind Great Britain.

"It is disappointing but I am really proud and super proud of the team that never gave up and fought all the way to the end," said American Jonathan Horton.

Great Britain also had an up-and-down event. Led by an event-high score of 15.966 from Louis Smith, the hosts had the top mark on the pommel horse and also saw all three of their floor exercise gymnasts -- Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas and Max Whitlock -- turn in great efforts to lead that event as well.

"My god it's amazing. I can't believe we've made history," Purvis said.

Britain still had to sweat a bit after posting the lowest score on the ring exercise, as well as the second-worst score on both the parallel and horizontal bars.

They ultimately ended less than a point back of Japan, which was fifth in qualifying and had its score bumped up on Monday after a complaint into Kohei Uchimura's score on the pommel horse was accepted.

Following Uchimura's score of 13.466, Japan's coach handed his inquiry to the Superior Jury, who reviewed the routine and raised it by 0.700 points.

"I wasn't credited with the full difficulty start value for my routine. My coach lodged a protest and that's why the score was raised," explained Uchimura.

The Japanese still couldn't catch China, which logged a score of 275.997 on Monday after qualifying sixth. The Chinese became the first country to win consecutive gold medals in men's team event since Japan won five straight from 1960-1976. They have won three of the last four golds in this event overall.

Chinese replacement Guo Weiyang, added to the team because Teng Haibin tore a muscle in his left forearm in mid-July, made numerous missteps on Saturday, but was much more solid on Monday. That also goes for Feng Zhe and Zhang Chenglong, who also had a miscue on the pommel horse in qualifying.

"After getting out from bed this morning, I knew we were going to win it because in qualifications we didn't do very well," said China's Chen Yibing.

But the big surprise was Great Britain, which had won only one previous medal in men's team gymnastics. That was a bronze that came in the 1912 Stockholm Games.

Not even a drop from second to third could damper the good spirits.

"The whole situation hasn't sunk in. Despite that protest and the score change, for us, this is a dream come true," said Smith. "To get a bronze medal is a miracle. Silver, bronze, it doesn't matter. We really look up to the Japanese and they deserved the silver medal. We were still happy and still clapping. It was nice to see Japan winning a medal. We have the bronze medal on our necks, who cares about silver?"