Surprise medal for Britain

The Peterborough teenager was rewarded for a difficult routine with a score of 15.725, enough to claim Britain's first ever individual Olympic medal in men's gymnastics.

Triple world champion Xiao Qin took the gold with a score of 15.875, while Croatian Filip Ude won the bronze with the same score as Smith, who was pipped on execution.

"I was emotional, scared and nervous," said Smith, a gold medallist for England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

"It was absolutely unbelievable. I thought it would feel like competing in a Commonwealth Games or world championship, but it was a completely different level.

"It was just crazy. I hope this medal is a stepping stone for British gymnastics. Hopefully it won't be the last and we can go onwards and upwards. I hope it will inspire youngsters to come into our sport."

Smith also made history in 2007 when he became the first men's gymnast in 13 years to claim a world championship medal, winning bronze in the pommel horse in Germany.

China's Qin maintained a perfect bodyline to hand the host nation their fifth gold medal in the Olympic gymnastics competition.

Mounting the pommel with his eyes locked on the block of wood, Xiao rotated with ease and punched his fists up in the air as he nailed his dismount to continue China's gold rush.

Since Teng Haibin's success in Anaheim in 2003, Chinese men have won every world and Olympic title on the apparatus.

Earlier on Sunday, Zou Kai tightened China's stranglehold in the men's competition when he tumbled to glory on the floor after favourites Diego Hypolito and Marian Dragulescu fluffed their routines.

Hypolito had high hopes of becoming the first Brazilian to win an Olympic gymnastics title and for the first 60 seconds of his routine, he seemed poised to put Brazil on top of the podium.

He launched into his final tumble, executing two backward flips followed by a double somersault and then simply fell back.

Looking crushed, he did not bother to acknowledge the judges as is customary in the sport and instead slowly trudged off the floor holding his head in his hands.

Stunned by his misfortune, he could not even look up when his mark of 15.200 was posted.

"I don't know what happened, I never expected this would happen. It's an element I never get wrong," the 21-year-old said.

"I'm sorry to all Brazilians."

While Hypolito and Dragulescu, who finished sixth and seventh respectively, tried to digest their flops on the floor, Zou appeared energised by the "Go China" chants from the home crowd.

Deafening roars greeted each of his complex twists and soaring somersaults and after completing his display, he punched the air and ran off to exchange high fives with his coaches.

Zou earned a score of 16.050, the first time the 16.000 barrier had been broken on the apparatus in Beijing.

"I was not the favourite (but) I knew I had the talent to win the gold medal," said Zou, whose win preserved Chinese men's 100 percent gymnastics record in Beijing.

Gervasio Deferr of Spain, twice an Olympic vault champion, finished 0.275 of a point behind while Anton Golotsutskov of Russia was awarded the bronze with 15.725.

A jubilant Deferr held up three fingers to signify his three Olympic medals as he was awarded the silver on the podium.

Romanian gymnast Sandra Izbasa impressed judges with her flawless tumbling and elegant leaps to win Olympic gold in the women's floor exercise.

The last competitor, she took to the floor with confidence to score 15.650, eclipsing American world champion Shawn Johnson by 0.150. All-around champion Nastia Liukin grabbed the bronze.

China's Cheng Fei, one of the favourites, burst into tears after slipping up for the second time in a day. Having landed on her knees in the vault final where she won bronze, she skidded backwards after her penultimate tumble to finish seventh.

Brazilian former world champion Daiane dos Santos put herself out of the running by landing her last two tumbling combinations outside the marked area.

Izbasa had already won a bronze in the team competition.

Anna Pavlova was angry with herself for heaping more gymnastics misery on Russia by failing to notice the light was still on red when she sprinted up for her disqualified vault in the final.

Both she and the crowd were shocked when a score of 0.000 flashed up for her second vault, bringing back bad memories of the 2007 world championships where another zero on the apparatus cost Russia the team bronze medal.

"It is an intolerable error for an athlete of my experience," the 20-year-old Pavlova, who notched a good 15.625 for her first vault before the zero gave an almost laughable average of 7.812, said.

"I really thought there was a green light when I started to run but when I looked at the replay it was red. I thought I saw something flash. It was my mistake."

The 2004 Olympic bronze medallist said the incident had affected her performance in the floor final less than an hour later, where she landed on her knees after her final tumble to finish last of the eight gymnasts.

Once the sport's superpower, Russia have struggled at these Olympics, with Anton Golotsutskov's floor bronze on Sunday their only medal so far.

The team were already fragile after the world championships, where they had been comfortably in third place before Ekaterina Kramarenko mis-timed her run-up and scored zero for not completing her vault to send Russia plummeting to last place.