FIAT DEALERS GARAGES

Michele Frangilli's final shot earned Italy the Olympic archery team gold medal at Lord's Cricket Ground, denying the United States in the cruellest of fashions at the climax of a pulsating men's final.

The Americans, led by world number one Brady Ellison, had the gold within their grasp as Frangilli stepped to the line needing a perfect 10 to win.

With the wind swirling round the historic Lord's stadium and 4,000 fans holding their breath, the Italian rock took the pressure on his broad shoulders, let the seconds tick down, then loosed his arrow at the target 70 metres away.

A hush. A whirr. A thud. A roar.

"This is a dream come true. With the last arrow, hitting a 10, it was a dream," said Frangilli, who broke down in tears with the gold medal around his neck.

"I knew I had to score 10 .. There was the noise of the crowd and I felt the pressure so I tried to just empty my mind.

"The arrow flew, it flew straight, I saw it flying straight into the 10. My shot was clean."

Frangilli's team mates, Mauro Nespoli and Marco Galiazzo, stood transfixed as the final arrow flew to the target. They had missed out on the gold medal in 2008 after losing by two points to South Korea.

Galiazzo, who won the individual gold in Athens, said taking the team title had been a priority.

"The team gold is something we had been chasing for many years." he said. "We shot the best we could and here we are."

TEAM PRIDE

For the United States, winning the team silver represented a massive leap forward in their development under coaching guru Lee Ki-sik. The South Korean has turned Brady Ellison, Jake Kaminski and Jacob Wukie into world beaters.

Potentially at least.

They proved that in their semi-final victory over archery superpower South Korea, who set two world records in the ranking round on Friday and had won three consecutive team gold medals at the Beijing, Athens and Sydney Games.

"I'm very proud of our team ... with Jake and Wukie stepping up and shooting 10s, if I had shot 10 to back them up it would have swung the match," said Ellison.

"But everything happens for a reason and I'm really excited about the silver medal."

South Korea's defeat left Im Dong-hyun, Kim Bub-min and Oh Jin-hyek shellshocked, but they did their best to look happy with the bronze medal after beating Mexico in the playoff.

"I didn't do as well as expected against the United States," conceded Im, who set a world record in the 72 arrow ranking round on Friday.

"My condition was OK but somehow I couldn't get 10 points. I need to forget about it because I have the individual matches coming up."

Korea's stranglehold on the team event has not been matched in the individual archery competition, where no South Korean man has ever won the individual gold medal.

(Editing by)

A series of errors and stumbles made China look vulnerable in the early qualifying session and by the time all their rivals had competed they were lying sixth.

After the third and final session, when Russia put on a strong show, the Americans led the 1996 Olympic champions by 2.747 points with hosts Britain 0.175 behind.

Consistent performances by Danell Leyva and John Orozco across the six apparatus gave the Americans, cheered on by enthusiastic, flag-waving fans at the North Greenwich Arena, the edge.

"I think it's going to be a historic team final," Leyva told reporters. "We've been telling the world for the longest time (that winning gold is possible) and now everyone is finally realising how much we believe in it and feel it in our hearts."

Germany, featuring twice world silver all-around medalist Philipp Boy who persevered despite hurting his ankle, qualified fourth with Japan, and below-par triple world champion Kohei Uchimura, fifth.

Scores are reset to zero in Monday's team final, for which the best eight teams qualified, so China, who have not been beaten since the 2004 Athens Olympics, still have a chance to preserve their reputation.

However, Saturday's showing gave cause for concern to a nation which won seven of the eight men's gymnastics titles on offer in Beijing four years ago.

With 2004 Olympic pommel horse champion Teng Haibin missing because of an arm injury, China tottered from one mistake to another.

Zhang Chenglong overbalanced on the pommel horse and somersaulted off, Guo Weiyang - Teng's stand-in - banged his head in a clumsy landing from a tumble on the floor and Zou Kai stumbled as he landed his vault.

"We should have beaten Britain but Teng's late withdrawal affected us and we did not perform as well as we should have," Chen Yibing, one of the 2008 team champions, told reporters via a translator.

"Guo came in as a substitute and he made quite a few mistakes because he has a lack of experience."

APPARATUS FINALISTS

The British team, basking in home advantage, were elated at their performance.

"It was just a dream competition," said Louis Smith who contributed a smooth pommel horse routine to earn 15.800, by far the highest mark of the day on the apparatus. "It is just unbelievable."

Smith had tears in his eyes after completing his routine on the apparatus that gave him a bronze medal in Beijing. Britain, the European champions, have not won an Olympic team medal since bronze in the 1912 Stockholm Games.

Saturday's qualifying also determined the 24 finalists for the all-around event and the final eight on each apparatus.

Leyva was the best all-round individual, 0.433 points ahead of Russian David Belyavskiy, with Germany's popular Fabian Hambuchen third. Beijing silver medalist Uchimura, who scored a low 12.466 on the pommel horse after a fall and a half-hearted dismount, qualified in ninth.

"It's definitely very big (to finish ahead of Uchimura)," Leyva said. "I'm very excited and I know for a fact that he's going to come back super strong."

China failed to get a man into next Wednesday's all-around final and Boy missed out, despite being 19th, as the higher-placed Hambuchen and Marcel Ngyuen claimed the two places each team is limited to.

Bulgaria's Jordan Jovtchev, competing in a record sixth Olympics at the age of 39, just made it into the rings final but Filip Ude, who became Croatia's first Olympic gymnastics medalist four years ago with silver on the pommel horse, went out after losing his grip and slipping off the apparatus.

Japanese brothers Yusuke and Kazuhito Tanaka will vie for medals in the parallel bars on August 7 after finishing top of the qualifiers while lone Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland, twice a world silver medalist, led the way into the high bar final with a daring routine.

(Editing by Justin Palmer)