The men’s team final at the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland was a nail biter at its finest. Coming down to the very last routine—one that included a fall Japan’s from 5-time World Champion Kohei Uchimura—every eye in the Hydro arena was locked on the video board waiting for the score. Despite an uncharacteristic high bar rotation, Japan came out with the gold after scoring an impressive 270.818. Great Britain found themselves making history for the second night in a row, scoring a 270.345 and earning the silver medal. Reigning champion China was not able to defend their title but still landed on the podium and took third with a 269.959.

The U.S. men came out of the gun on fire. They began on rings with three solid routines, anchored by team captain Brandon Wynn who scored a 15.20. Strong performances on vault and parallel bars, as well as an incredible redemptive high bar set from Paul Ruggeri, had the U.S. men holding on tight to second place throughout the entire competition. However, small mistakes on the pommel horse left Team USA about two points out of medal contention.

Japan looked untouchable from the start. Kenzo Shirai was outstanding as always on floor, commanding the attention of the arena as he closed his routine with a seemingly simple quadruple twist to earn a 16.325. The team continued with solid performances and at the halfway point, was over six points ahead of China, who never quite caught their stride.

China began on floor with a mediocre 44.525 and underperformed on pommel horse, including a fall from Xiao Routeng, to score a 41.565 on the event. While the latter half of the meet was home to stronger performances, such as a 15.766 rings routine for Liu Yang and Deng Shudi's 16.066 on parallel bars, it wasn’t enough to overtake the stellar performances of Japan and Great Britain.

A historic first-ever podium finish for Team Great Britain came as a result of consistently rock-solid routines throughout the night. Louis Smith was able to set the precedent for a tremendous competition with his opening 15.333 pommel horse routine. Team GBR continued with standout rotations on vault and parallel bars that included no scores less than a 15.0. On the final event, Max Whitlock closed with a stuck triple full, earning a huge 15.766, and the hearts of every Great Britain fan in the arena. They knew they had a medal, they just didn’t know which color. 

With Japan’s two dramatic high bar falls in the final rotation from Uchimura and Yusuke Tanaka, it looked as if there may be room for Great Britain to slip in front. But Uchimura’s difficulty and strong finish earned him a 14.466 score, which was enough to lock in the gold for Japan.

Routine Of The Day

For viewing in the U.S. only:

Lineups and Predictions

Tomorrow is the women's all-around final, and our prediction for the top 3 is below:

1. Simone Biles, USA
2. Gabby Douglas, USA
3. Giulia Steingruber, SUI

They Said It

Louis Smith on building the current GBR empire:

“It started from 2005 in Melbourne—that was my first World Championships at 16-17 years old. So that’s where it all started. I literally started from the bottom. We had no funding. So I was there. I was there when we were 23rd in the world, and then to still be here and we’ve just claimed the silver in the team event—it’s unbelievable. I can’t believe it.”

And lastly, you can always rely on Canadian 2012 Olympian Victoria Moors for a good laugh on Twitter:

Someone named Marta added me on snapchat... And I'm guessing it's not Marta karolyi, so that's upsetting.

— Victoria Moors (@VictoriaMoors) October 28, 2015

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