DOUBLE Olympic champion Max Whitlock will lead a 10-strong Great Britain team to the World Gymnastics Championships in Montreal next month.

The Basildon-based Whitlock will be joined by South Essex Gymnastics Club team-mate Amy Tinkler as they look to build on their extraordinary success at last year’s Olympics.

However, Whitlock insists he is unfazed by the weight of expectation as he bids to defend the pommel crown he won in Glasgow in 2015 to become Britain’s first male world champion.

“I am trying not to think about going in there to defend my title because I want to keep the pressure off as much as possible,” said Whitlock, who won two golds in Rio last summer.

“I don’t tend to look at what my rivals are doing.

“But I’m happy with the upgrades I’ve made to my routine and the level I will now be going in at.

“My new start score on the pommel is hopefully still the highest in the world, so if I go through the routine clean then the scoring should take care of itself.

“I didn’t just want to come back with the same routines I had in Rio.

“The challenge was to come back with something bigger and better.”

The World Championships get underway in Canada at the start of October.