It's all just a little bit of history repeating as Whitlock wins World title again

Max Whitlock rose to the occasion once again as he became the first Britishgymnast to defend a world title with victory in the men's pommel final at theWorld Championships in Montreal, Canada.

The double Olympic champion delivered an improved routine to score a huge 15.441 points, exceeding his qualification score of 15.300, and easily beating Russia's David Belyavskiy into silver.

The 24-year-old Essex gymnast had taken a late gamble by adding an extra element for the eight-man final showdown, despite a bout of nerves which ended his hopes of reaching the floor final earlier this week.

The Briton's big decision paid off with a performance that underlined his complete dominance of the discipline, with Belyavskiy trailing on 15.100 andChina's Xiao Ruoteng third on 15.066.

Whitlock said:

Whitlock admitted he had never been more nervous during qualification, aneffect he put down to his abridged build-up to the competition after taking some time away from the sport in the wake of his Rio success to get married.

Whitlock added: "I decided to increase my start score because I was in theback of the arena and I could hear the scores going on. I could hear some big ones so I talked to my coach Scott (Hann) and we decided we needed it."

Watching on, Nadia Comaneci, who scored her famous perfect 10 in the same venue

41 years ago, must have been impressed by Whitlock's mastery of his apparatus, particularly considering his tumultuous experience in qualifying.<