‘Poor lad’ – Gymnast sits on his own after costing his team Olympic gold

Gymnast Su Weide took a seat away from his team-mates after costing China Olympic gold in a dramatic men’s team final in Paris.

China looked on course to take gold in the Bercy Arena until Su made a hash of his horizontal bar routine.

The BBC pundits noticed an early scare as the 24-year-old almost missed the bar and Su then fell twice in close succession, prompting audible gasps from the crowd.

The Chinese gymnast looked almost shell-shocked after finishing a poor and costly routine and immediately took a seat away from his team-mates.

Su was deducted two points for the double mistake and the mishap saw China finish just behind Japan in the overall standings.

‘China had a buffer but it wasn’t big enough,’ BBC commentator Matt Baker said. ‘That poor lad there.

‘Three big deductions. What a shame for him. This is a brutal format, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.’

Gymnastics expert Christine Still added: ‘It just shows what the pressure is for everyone here.

‘There was a slight moment at the start where Su Weide almost put his hand on the bar incorrectly.

‘He did the very difficult moves but he did not get the grip twice and he fell. That could be really quite costly for China.

‘Such drama here. This is true sport at it’s very best. So unpredictable.’

Team GB had an outside chance of a medal in the men’s team final but finished fourth, with USA taking bronze after an impressive display.

Rating Great Britain’s performance in the final, Commonwealth Games gold-winning gymnast Craig Heap said: ‘The top three teams performed out of their skin, it just wasn’t quite good enough from Team GB today.

‘The USA have often come to games and had near misses but they won bronze at the World Championships and have matched that here. They raised the bar from qualification to the final.’

London 2012 bronze medalist Beth Tweddle added: ‘Team GB can be very proud of themselves.

‘It is 18 routines that we are asking for, which is tough. It was not down to one error, they were a couple of marks behind in the end.

‘It was always going to be a tough challenge to get a medal and they have still got lots of individual and the women’s final to come.’

On Su’s meltdown, Tweddle said: ‘The first fall was so uncharacteristic. Once you fall you’ve got to pick yourself back up.

‘He did look like he twisted his knee a bit but from the get go he looked very unsettled.’