Britain's Louis Smith has pledged to win a World Gymnastics Championships medal for his grandmother, who died last week.

Smith, Britain's first gymnastic Olympic medallist for a century following his bronze on the pommel horse in Beijing, last night qualified third for the final on the same apparatus with a replica of the routine he performed at the Games.

But the 20-year-old, whose score of 15.900 put him behind China's Zhang Hongtao and Hungarian Krisztian Berki at London's O2 Arena, will tackle a more complex and potentially higher-scoring routine in Saturday's final.

Smith said: "My nan passed away a week ago and she was really keen that I would be competing at the World Championships in London and she really wanted to see that.

"She didn't, so I'm forgetting about doing it for the nation. I'm really here to do it for my nan."

Smith, who tried and failed to make it as a singer on X-Factor, is one of Britain's best chances for a gymnastics medal at the Worlds and also at the 2012 Olympics.

Daniel Keatings and Kristian Thomas rounded off a successful day for Britain's men's team by qualifying fourth and ninth respectively for tomorrow's allround final.

Keatings, whose medal ambitions were aided following the withdrawal of event favourite Fabian Hambuchen, of Germany, at the weekend, survived a scare when he landed awkwardly at the end of his pommel horse routine which he put down to the nerves of performing in front of his home crowd.

He added: "The first half of the routine was perfect, I just misplaced my hand on the dismount, completely missed the horse and landed awkwardly on the floor.

"I got my mistakes out of the way so I can hopefully have the perfect competition in the final.

"Given that I made a couple of mistakes it's a really good score and it looks promising for tomorrow."

Britain's women's team were due to get their World Championship ambitions under way at the O2 today, with Beth Tweddle and Becky Downie among six home athletes in action.