Great Britain's men took a giant step towards joining the women's team on the plane to Rio 2016 after a strong showing during qualification at the Gymnastics World Championships in Glasgow.

The women's team secured their team final berth on Saturday night, qualifying third best, and the men's team were in solid form when their turn came around in the first of the men's qualification sessions.

The team of Louis Smith, Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock, Brinn Bevan, Dan Purvis and Nile Wilson racked up a total score of 354.417 and now face a long wait until Monday night to find out if they have done enough to make the top eight and Wednesday's final.

But Thomas, who helped Britain to team bronze at London 2012, thinks the team have done enough and praised the hard work of his teammates.

“It means everything to put ourselves in with a chance of going to Rio because it's everything we have been training for since London,” he said.

“Rio is what we have all been aiming for and what we have been working hard for and to know that we have done the job now means we can relax a bit more."

“We just want to go out there on Wednesday and enjoy the whole experience and see where that leads us."

“I think we can make an impact in the final, I think that we have got a great team and we can be up there with any other country."

“It is about dealing with the pressure and the nerves so if we can go in and enjoy ourselves then it could help us.”

While the team are confident of qualification there was also the small matter of individual finals with Dan Purvis the highest-scoring all-around Briton with 88.956.

But there was a tie for second with Max Whitlock and Nile Wilson both scoring 88.365 – Whitlock eventually taking second by virtue of their lowest apparatus score being removed.

And the 22-year-old says it is a testament to the depth of British gymnastics at present that Wilson pushed him so close.

“I think that was really good and everyone in the team is really pleased with how it went out there and the performances we put in,” said Whitlock.

“It was a very close competition and I knew it was going to be tight out there and everyone would perform well but I think that is what helped us perform today."

“I just had to forget about the fall on the high bar. I have done a lot of training and on the day there are a few nerves but as I settled in it got better."

“I spoke to Nile and he is very happy to come out here and compete at the worlds and put in a good job."

“I didn't know what to think when I saw we were tied to be honest and I didn't know what the decision was going to be."

“I just knew that everyone had done a good job and it would be good enough for the team final because that is what our aim was.”

SSE’s Next Generation programme partners with SportsAid to provide financial support and training to the sports stars of the future. Keep up to date with the latest @SSENextGen