DOWN and out Craig Heap today vowed to bounce back after just missing out on a place in the British Olympic gymnastics squad.

A fall off the high bars, normally his strongest discipline, in the final trials dashed the Burnley gymnast's hopes of making Atlanta.

The way was then left open for Lee McDermott and Dominic Brindle to secure the final two places in the team.

And Heap's Olympic dream must go on the back burner for four more years.

"I'm gutted," admitted Heap, who works at a leisure centre in Newcastle.

"It was my best piece that went wrong and that makes it even harder to accept.

"That's how I blew it.

"But I've got to set my sights now on the Commonwealth Games in two years' time and the next Olympics in Sydney.

"There's a long way to go but you have to have something to strive for."

Heap's immediate plan is to have an operation on his left elbow which has been troubling him for some time.

The operation had to be postponed until now because it would have disrupted his preparation for Atlanta.

"It inhibited me slightly in the trials and hopefully the operation will clear up the problem," he said.

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