Friends pay tribute to Olympic hero Kristian Thomas

Friends and coaches gathered to watch a Black Country gymnast make history and dramatically scoop an Olympic bronze medal.

Wolverhampton's Kristian Thomas and his teammates won Great Britain's first medal in the team event for a century.

And more than 50 packed into the Earls Gymnastic Club in Halesowen, where the 23-year-old trains two or three times a week, to watch it all unfold on television.

The club's chairman John Caulwell said Kristian, of Silverton Way, was "the ice man" for performing so well under pressure.

Kristian, along with Louis Smith, Max Whitlock, Daniel Purvis and Sam Oldham, was initially awarded silver but an inquiry into the score of Kohei Uchimura's pommel horse routine saw Japan claim silver and Britain downgraded to bronze.

The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry led the support at the North Greenwich Arena as Britain won their first Olympic team medal since the bronze at the Stockholm Games in 1912.

Members of all ages brought along their family and friends to the Halesowen club in Furnace Lane to cheer on the team.

Among them was assistant head coach and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Ryan Bradley, who brought along his fiancee Amy Cooke for support.

Youngsters had made banners and posters paying tribute to the former pupil of St Patrick's Catholic Primary School, Wednesfield, with one dubbing him "our very own Olympian".

Mr Caulwell, who has been at the club for seven years, said: "This is absolutely fantastic – words escape me.

"It has been such an emotional ride. If someone would have told us before the Olympics that they would reach the final, we would have been happy with that.

"No-one gave them much of a realistic chance of a medal but they have performed out of their skins. Kristian was the anchor man and all the pressure was on him towards the end but he is the ice man.

He added: "It was a nigh on faultless performance – he had a brilliant vault and I honestly don't think he could have done any better."

Kristian's coach at Earl's, Michelle Bradley, was in London to see him win the medal. She said: "He's made me proud, the club proud, his parents proud – he's a hero.

"When we picked the team I said there was a chance we could medal rather than just concentrate on the individuals.

"Everyone said there was an outside chance but I said that we could do it."