An extraordinary and controversial finale to the men's team final ended with Britain securing a bronze medal – their first medal since 1912. They had initially been awarded the silver, but an inquiry into Kohei Uchimura's final score on pommel horse resulted in a revision of the final scores and pushed Japan above them into second place.

China retained their Olympic gold medal, maintaining an adamantine grip on the competition throughout, and there was a 10 minute wait before the final placings were decided. In the end, however, Britain's bronze, hard fought and stylishly won, will be a result that goes down in the history books.

There had been a sense, even before the competition, that the British men had fulfilled their ambitions simply by reaching the final and all the gymnasts reiterated that their aim for the final was simply to enjoy it. That relaxed attitude showed as they made their way around the apparatus. They had begun on their strongest suit, the pommel horse, where Louis Smith lowered his difficulty level to ensure a routine of care and precision and with fine contributions from Daniel Purvis and Max Whitlock their apparatus total of 45.932 was a fantastic start to competition.

By the halfway point, they were in third place and within 0.8 of a point of second-placed Japan and Smith was wearing an extremely large smile. Then Sam Oldham fell on the high bar, and suddenly Ukraine were back in the hunt. Vitali Nakonechnyi put in a clean routine on pommel and Kristian Thomas responded with one of his best ever performances on high bar, to keep Britain in touch.

It came down to how well they could perform their floor routines, while Ukraine, also fighting for bronze, went on rings. Both Max Whitlock and Dan Purvis turned in high scores, before Thomas finished the job with not a trace of nerves.

China, meanwhile, were nothing like the team that had shambled sheepishly through qualification. The errors that were shot through that performance, leaking points from their total, were gone, and there was something new in their attitude here – a focus and determination that showed itself on their faces as they performed. After a strong start on rings, they recorded the highest score on vault and by the time they were on parallel bars they looked completely in their stride.

Japan had also recovered their composure after a disappointing qualification and fought them hard in the final three rotations. Uchimura, their star package, was back on world champion form. His high bar routine was without doubt the most spectacular event of this final, Uchimura hurling himself so high above the bar that he had time to somersault and twist in inhuman combinations.

The USA, by contrast, had a nightmare. Having qualified their men's and women's teams in first place for the only time in history, they had a veneer of invincibility and their first team title since 1984 seemed a likelihood. But they had problems on pommel horse, putting in two low scores, and after a recovery on rings, all rested on the vault, where they were expected to score high. But the 19-year-old John Orozco missed his landing on his very first vault, and as he sat on the crash mat, his legs splayed before him, he knew his team's dream was over. It was a miss from which the American team would not be able to recover.