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Wilson is Britain's first horizontal bar European champion

(Reuters) - Nile Wilson became the first Briton to win the horizontal bar gold at the European Gymnastics Championships on the final day of competition in Bern on Sunday. The 20-year-old, who helped Britain to win team silver on Saturday, scored 15.300 points to beat off the challenge of team mate Kristian Thomas as Britain took the top two places on the podium in the absence of London Olympic champion Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands. Wilson said: "That feeling is just incredible. To be standing there with our team captain Kristian, someone who has helped me so much and is such a great role model, makes it even more special. "I felt the nerves before my routine but had to stay focused, I knew I had it in me and I did it. We move forward to focus on Rio now," he added. Russia's David Belyavskiy was third and took gold in the parallel bars with a score of 16.033 ahead of Ukraine's former world champion Oleg Verniaiev, on 15.716, who also took the vault with 15.399. Belyavskiy claimed his third medal, a silver behind Armenia's Harutyun Merdinyan on the pommel horse, after favourite Louis Smith of Britain, the world silver medallist, slipped and fell. Smith finished fourth. Greece's world champion Eleftherios Petrounias (15.866) retained his European title on the rings. Nikita Nagornyy completed a successful championships for Russia, who took the team gold on Saturday, by winning the floor exercise in 15.566 ahead of Romania's Marian Dragulescu. (Writing by Neil Robinson in London; editing by Clare Fallon)