The result sees the women match the result of the men's team last week, who won three individual medals as well as a team silver.

Tweddle impressed on the uneven bars and the floor as she helped Beckie Downie, Nicole Hibbert, Niamh Rippin and Jocelyn Hunt reach a total of 168.275 points and clinch second place after qualifying third at the NIA.

Tweddle's score of 15.850 on the uneven bars and 14.925 on the floor were unmatched as the British team finished second overall behind Russia and ahead of defending champions Romania who claimed the bronze medal.

Tweddle, who is due to defend her floor and uneven titles tomorrow, said: "It's amazing.

"I waited eight European Championships for this.

"Coming into these Championships I honestly didn't think we'd be up there in the top three.

"The team have outdone my expectations.

"You can see the emotion on our coaches' faces, we've probably done a lot more than they thought originally as well."

Russia, which had already won gold in the junior team and all-around competitions in Birmingham, reclaimed the title it had last won with Svetlana Khorkina in 2002.

But Tweddle claimed that Britain's performance showed that the sport is on an upward curve as it approaches the Olympics at London in 2012.

She said: "This is the first senior year for some of our team members.

"We have other girls too with some injuries at the moment, but there's a strong squad and this has been great preparation for worlds next year, taking us forward to the Olympics in 2012."


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