MAX Whitlock says he is ready to go for more Olympic medal glory after helping Great Britain to an historic team bronze.

The Basildon -based gymnast became one of the nation’s new sporting heroes when he helped secure Britain’s third medal of the Games on Tuesday night.

And the 19-year-old is in the running to add more silverware when he takes his place in the individual pommel final at the North Greenwich Arena on Sunday. “I hope to do well but getting the team medal has taken any pressure off me,” said Whitlock, who is tipped to be in the hunt for bronze behind GB team-mate Louis Smith and Hungary’s Krisztián Berki.

“But I’m performing as well as I’ve ever done, and to have an Olympic medal already is way beyond what I expected.

“So it just feels like I’ll have no pressure for the pommel final and I can just go out there and give it my best shot.”

Whitlock said he had no hard feelings over the decision which denied him and his four team-mates a silver medal at Tuesday’s team final.

A successful appeal against Kohei Uchimura’s difficulty score on pommel horse saw Japan moved up from fourth to second, and that moved Britain down to third.

A well-placed source in the British camp said they felt it was the correct decision, and Whitlock said it did not spoil the experience for him at all.

“To be honest that doesn’t matter,” he said. “Whether we took bronze or silver — we knew we were going to make history.

“We’d already made history by qualifying for the final, so getting a medal was just a huge bonus.”

Whitlock’s 18-month journey from the junior ranks to an Olympic medal is nothing short of incredible, and the scale of progress was not lost on the teenager.

He said: “It is crazy to think about where I was such a short time ago, and it was a big step up for me when I went to the Commonwealth Games. “So I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved here in London and now I’m excited about what we can do in the future.”

Whitlock’s mum and dad travelled from their home in Adeyfield, Hemel Hempstead, to see their son become an Olympic star on Tuesday.

And the teenager was stunned by the droves of people who followed him on his Twitter account @maxwhitlock1 on Tuesday night.

An appearance on BBC One’s flagship Olympic coverage helped boost his followers from about 2,000 to nearly 16,000 in a matter of hours.

And when asked what it felt like to become a nationally recognised sportsman virtually overnight, he said: “It’s just crazy.

“I’ve now got so many interviews to do, but I’m really enjoying it. Nothing really prepares you for this, but I’m trying to just keep my feet on the ground.”