Double delight for Britain's Whitlock; Mustafina unstoppable

Max Whitlock ended Britain's 120-year wait for an Olympic gymnastics gold medal when he upstaged favourite and twice world champion Kenzo Shirai to win the men's floor exercise title on Sunday. He later edged teammate and rival Louis Smith for gold in men’s pommel horse. In the women's section, Russia's Aliya Mustafina captured the asymmetric bars gold for a second successive Olympics with a routine full of grace and power.

Max Whitlock produced a series of gravity-defying tumbles to win gold with a score of 15.633.

Max Whitlock ended Britain's 120-year wait for an Olympic gymnastics gold medal when he upstaged favourite and twice World Champion Kenzo Shirai to win the men's floor exercise title on Sunday.

Whitlock produced a series of gravity-defying tumbles to win gold with a score of 15.633 while Brazilian Diego Hypolito made up for his flop shows at the last two Games by claiming silver to the delight of the partisan crowd.

There was more joy for the home fans as Arthur Mariano picked up the bronze.

Shirai finished fourth after almost sitting down following one of his tumbling runs and stumbling on the next. All around champion Kohei Uchimura was fifth.

Later, Whitlock picked up his second Olympic gold medal in the span of an hour.

He edged teammate and rival Louis Smith for gold in men’s pommel horse on Sunday shortly after he topped Brazil’s Diego Hypolito for gold on floor exercise.

Whitlock’s total of 15.966 was just enough to nip Smith’s score of 15.833. Alexander Naddour of the U.S. was third, the first medal by an American on the event since 1984.

Second successive Olympics gold for Mustafina

Russia's Aliya Mustafina finally ended the American women's stranglehold at the Rio Games as she captured the asymmetric bars gold for a second successive Olympics with a routine full of grace and power.

Until Mustafina mounted the bars, the United States had swept the board as Simone Biles scooped the team, all around and vault golds.

With this being the only final not featuring Biles, her team-mate and world champion Madison Kocian had hopes of continuing the American gold rush as she had earned the highest score in qualifying.

But she could not beat Mustafina's score of 15.900 and had to settle for silver.

Germany's Sophie Scheder burst into tears after claiming a surprise bronze.

Gabby Douglas, the 2012 all around champion, failed to add to her tally of three gold medals from two Games as a slight hesitation during a transition element on the higher of the two bars left her seventh out of eight finalists with a score of 15.066.