GB men take fourth and must wait for LA28 Olympic spot

Great Britain narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games at the first attempt as they placed fourth in the men's team final at the Gymnastics World Championships.

Only the top three in Rotterdam were assured of early qualification for the Games in Los Angeles in two years' time, with defending champions Japan taking the gold medal ahead of Russia in second and China in third.

GB's next chance to qualify will be at the World Championships in Chengdu, China in 2027, where a top-nine finish will secure a place in LA.

Courtney Tulloch, Joe Fraser, Jake Jarman, Harry Hepworth and Reuben Ward qualified in second place for the final and finished with a total score of 247.395 on Tuesday.

The team were leading the standings after four of the six rotations, but they just fell short of staying in the medal places as Japan, Russia and China all improved in the closing stages. Japan took the step on the podium with a score of 251.928.

Fraser told BBC Sport the team feel they are in a good position to challenge for titles in the future.

"I think collectively, as a team, we can look at the overall of the team final and know that we are definitely amongst the best in the world, and we can compete with the best in the world," Fraser said.

"We were taking Japan right the way to the end, and up until the parallel bars, we were with them.

"So we know as long as we can work on our routines from the parallel bars and the high bar, we can really contend to be world champions maybe next year."

You can watch coverage of the Gymnastics World Championships, which run until Sunday, 25 October, on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.