Max Whitlock, Nile Wilson tie in all-around qualifying at gymnastics worlds

GLASGOW, Scotland — For a country that had to go to the test event just to qualify for the Olympics last time, Britain’s team result was enough.

So when a tiebreaker had to be used to determine a second gymnast in the all-around competition, Max Whitlock and Nile Wilson focused on the Brits’ spot atop the standings rather than their own.

Britain led the competition after the first of eight qualifying sessions and was in good position early Sunday to make the eight-team final and automatically qualify for the Rio Olympics.

Daniel Purvis took the top all-around spot, scoring 88.956, before Whitlock and Wilson tied with 88.365.

According to tiebreaking procedures, the score from each gymnast’s worst event — in this case, high bar for Whitlock and pommel horse for Wilson — is dropped, and Whitlock came out ahead by .133.

“Yeah, gymnastics is a tough sport and the rules are the rules,” said Wilson. “But that’s it, that’s the way it goes. The main thing is I’m really happy with my results today and I’m grateful to be world championships for the second time at 19 years old. I can’t ask for more.”

Whitlock started the day off with a fall on high bar, scoring a 13.6 while Wilson scored 1.3 points higher there. Whitlock is the reigning Olympic bronze medalist on pommel horse, and his strength on that event showed with a difficulty score of 7.2 that was the highest of the day. That translated to a 1.533-point advantage over Wilson’s routine.

“It was a very close competition. I knew everyone was going to be quite close,” said Whitlock. “We’ve got such a strong team out there, and I think that’s what helps us do the job we done today.”

Wilson edged Whitlock out for the second all-around spot at last year’s world championships, but he was injured and Britain’s coaches opted to go with Whitlock, who is more experienced. The move paid off, with Whitlock winning the silver medal.

Whitlock and Purvis were atop the leaderboard when they finished at The SSE Hydro. While they’ll be keeping an eye on the competition, it’d be unlikely that they would be bumped out of the top 24 that make the all-around final.

The rule that limits teams to two individuals in an all-around will likely keep top gymnasts from countries deep with talent from competing in finals. In Saturday’s women’s qualifying, American Aly Raisman missed the all-around final after finishing fifth as Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas were first and third, respectively.

Asked about the rule, Purvis highlighted the 2011 world championships, where Germany had four gymnasts in the all-around competition.

“It is tough,” he said. “I guess at the same time, if you’re the all-arounder you’ve got to do well but you want your teammates to do well as well. I don’t know, to be honest. You’ve got the likes of China, Japan, they could have four, three in all the finals, so if they changed I think it’d be quite difficult try to get the mix of countries. So I can see why they do it, but it does add more pressure individually, I think, to make final.”