MAX Whitlock's dream Olympic Games has hit stratospheric new heights after he was awarded his own signature move - The Whitlock.

The 19-year-old's patented somersault on the parallel bars has been added to the world governing body's official list of recognised elements.

That means the South Essex Gymnastics Club member's name will be mentioned every time the move is used in competition - an honour which has been bestowed on some of the sport's most legendary figures.

Scott Hann, who coaches Whitlock at the Basildon Sporting Village, invented the move and says it is an honour which ranks alongside the bronze medal the teenage gymnast has already won at the home Games.

Hann said: "It's the move that Max does on the parallel bars where he does a reverse summersault and lands on the rail.

"It's a unique element to Max and was awarded to him following the team final. "It is something I taught him a long time ago, and at first it was something that some people turned their noses up because it was a new skill - but now it is in the sport's code.

"He's already got a bronze from the team final, and hopefully he'll add another medal in the pommel final.

"But this ranks up there with all of that because it means his name will go down in history."

The move will now be added to the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique's Table of Elements section of its Code of Points, a rulebook used to score routines in competition with 10.0 as the maximum.

Original elements are named after the first gymnast to successfully perform them at World Championships or Olympics. Famous examples include The Gienger, a release move on the high bar which was first performed by Germany's 1974 World Champion Eberhard Gienger, and The Yurchenko, named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who made it famous on the vault in the early 1980s. Whitlock, who's rocketed to stardom after helping Team GB win the first Olympic medal for British male gymnasts in a century on Monday, was thrilled when he learnt his move had been immortalised.

He said: "I did it in the qualification event but it did not count because I did not hold it for long enough.

"But I did it again in the team final and that counted, and I was told yesterday it will be put in the new code after the Olympics.

"It's pretty cool really, and I can't wait to see it included now and alongside all the famous names.

"It's just another fantastic thing to come out of the Olympics for me - and at this stage it still has not really sunk in."

Whitlock's had a head-spinning week with front-page appearances on national newspapers, meetings with sporting superstars including Lennox Lewis, and guest spots on breakfast television.

He said: "It has been unbelievable really and I look down at my medal sometimes and I just can't believe it.

"We've had Tweets of famous people wishing us good luck and the support we've received has been so nice."