By Jason Hughes, PA International

England's gymnasts gave the host nation their second gold medal of the Commonwealth Games with victory in a dramatic men's team final.

Led by local gymnasts John Smethurst and Craig Heap, England finished just ahead of three-time winners Canada in front of a partisan crowd at Manchester's G-Mex Centre.

England's team - also including Kanukai Jackson, Cuong Thoong and Ross Brewer - were successful in the defence of the gold medal they won in Kuala Lumpur four years ago.

Australia, silver medallists in 1998, finished in third place, while Scotland took a very creditable fourth.

Heap said: "It's absolutely brilliant, an unbelievable feeling.

"I started off with a dodgy display on the pommel horse but after that we got going and built on our score until the end.

"It's one medal down but there is more to come, I promise you that.

"The crowd were unbelievable. Being at home and having that noise to lift you is superb. It's better than four years ago."

Jackson added: "You can never take anything for granted. Even on the last discipline, we knew a couple of falls could put us back in trouble but we came through.

"It's just superb. The crowd is the best I've ever heard."

The English quintet kept their nerve to win after they had led from the second of the six rounds onwards.

England were considered one of the favourites for this event, which comprises six apparatus - floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.

They took the top prize after a tense battle with Canada.

The North Americans were never more than one point behind England, who won two silvers and a bronze in the three times this event was staged prior to 1998.

Going into the final round of apparatus, England were just 0.7 points ahead of the Canadians.

And the home team produced five near faultless performances on the horizontal bar to ensure Canada, competing at the other side of the arena floor on the pommel horse, never had the opportunity to sneak in and snatch gold.

It was perhaps fitting that Smethurst, from Middleton in Greater Manchester, was the man to clinch gold with the final performance of the competition, giving England victory by just 0.725 points.

The arena held his breath as the 25-year-old executed a release and catch perfectly before dismounting without any mishap.

Smethurst was soon surrounded on the podium by his four team-mates as the crowd rose to acclaim their success.

In a tight finish, England's bid had been boosted when Canada's star gymnast Alexander Jeltkov stumbled and fell to his knees during his floor exercise, losing valuable points in the penultimate round.

Immediately afterwards, Smethurst, who trains at the Central Manchester club, tightened England's grip on the lead with a superb performance on the parallel bars which earned 9.200 points.

The adrenaline was pumping through the English gymnasts, with Jackson following up with a performance which drew gasps from the capacity crowd and a score of 9.100.

As the prospect of gold drew nearer, the Manchester crowd became ever more raucous in its support of the home nation.

Jackson almost brought the house down when he had performed a two-and-a-half front somersault on the vault in the previous round.

The manoeuvre, with a difficulty rating of 9.8, helped earn him a dazzling score of 9.550 on the apparatus in which he is European bronze medallist.

Jackson missed the 1998 event as he was recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured cruciate knee ligament.

However Heap, of Burnley, along with Smethurst and Brewer were part of that gold medal-winning line-up in Malaysia.

Their performance helped maintain England's great record in the gymnastics events at the Commonwealth Games. The men's and women's teams won a total of nine medals in 1998.