Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland turned a slip into an amazing save when he won silver in the men’s high bar event at the world championships in Montreal on Sunday.

Zonderland, the reigning Olympic champion, failed to grab the bar with one hand but rather than fall off, he continued to swing and grasped the bar on the return, keeping going to finish the routine.

‘It feels like winning, because I could have fallen off,’ the 31-year-old told reporters afterwards. ‘I don’t know what happened but I went on automatic pilot to finish the routine. I am so, so happy it ended like this.’

The event was won by Tin Srbic of Croatia with newcomer Bart Deurloo, also of the Netherlands, taking bronze.