Dominick Cunningham upstaged Max Whitlock and shut up his critics yesterday as he won gold at the European Gymnastics Championships.

The Birmingham athlete entered the individual floor final as a medal hope in Glasgow but he left as the new star of British gymnastics following a flawless routine.

He scored 14.666 and that was enough to see off Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat into second and Russia’s Artur Dalaloyan into third at a raucous SSE Hydro.

Moments later double Olympic champion Whitlock could manage seventh on the pommel horse final, leaving 23-year-old Cunningham as Britain’s only gymnastics champion at these games.

"It's crazy - this is what dreams are made of. Last time I was here, I was in the box watching the competition, now I'm on floor, and I've just become European champion,” he said.

“I have proved people wrong and taken the doubts away from them. It's been incredible. It's been hard work, it hasn't been easy, even today - we've been waiting around. I knew it was about bringing all our professionalism to the stage.

“I came out with a great floor routine initially and the question was can he still do it the day after and the answer is yes I can.

“It is not just physically but mentally as well. It was nervous at the end because I knew the best competitors were coming at the end.

“To come away as champion is a bonus.”

It is a fourth major international medal of the year for Cunningham, who won two for England at the Commonwealth Games.

He was part of the squad which won team gold and backed that up with individual bronze on the vault.

A silver in the team event here for Great Britain backed that up but this gold underlines the strength in depth British gymnastics now has and Cunningham is refusing to rest on his laurels.

“I have got to keep pushing my other apparatus now to be on it for the team. That is what it is all about,” he added.

“We are such a close family and we know the juniors are nipping at our toes. It is maybe a wake-up call for them.”

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