Paul Hamm Wins First National Title

CLEVELAND (AP) - Two years ago, Blaine Wilson ( news - web sites) predicted Paul Hamm ( news - web sites) would someday beat the best in the world.

Well, someday has arrived, and the teenager is starting with Wilson.

Hamm won his first national title Friday night at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, ushering in a new era in convincing fashion. The loss was Wilson's first at a major meet in the United States since the Olympic trials in 1996, and spoiled his bid to become the first man to win six U.S. titles.

"It means a lot to me," said Hamm, who turns 20 next month. "Coming to the meet, it was my goal."

Hamm finished with 114.375 points, 2.375 ahead of Wilson. Just how big is that margin? Think of those early season routs in college football and you get the idea.

"He did a good job, he did a really good job," Wilson said. "He didn't leave the door open in any way."

Give Wilson some credit, though. He missed last year's nationals after tearing his rotator cuff, and he competed this week with a hyperextended knee and bum ankle.

"It would have been interesting, that's all I can say," Wilson said when asked what would have happened if he'd been healthy. "We'll see next year."

Guard Young was third, while Paul Hamm's twin, Morgan, who was out more than a year because of a nerve injury in his shoulder, finished fourth.

"I didn't expect to do as well as I did," Morgan Hamm ( news - web sites) said. "I knew I had routines I could hit and I knew if I got the adrenaline and the meet atmosphere, it turned out to be a really great competition for me."

Defending champion Sean Townsend ( news - web sites) had a rough night, seeming to get lost in the air on a handspring twist on the floor exercise. That seemed to throw him off, and he struggled the rest of the meet, dropping to fifth.

"I didn't have one normal Townsend routine," he said. "I hit a bump in the road, but I'm just going to go on from here."

Paul Hamm made a splash in 2000, when he and Morgan made the Olympic squad at age 17. Paul was sixth after the first day of competition, and finished a respectable 14th in the all-around.

He's just gotten better since then, and was in contention for an all-around medal at last fall's world championships until he fell off the high bar.

There were no slip-ups Friday night. From the start of the meet, he was consistently solid, opening a bigger lead on Wilson with every event.

His pommel horse routine was impressive. While other gymnasts plodded along, he whipped across the horse, his hands slapping out a rhythm. He scored a 9.7, the highest score of the night on pommel horse.

His parallel bars routine was one of the more difficult of the night, but he swung smoothly and easily. The only sign of its difficulty was an occasional grimace on his face.

He knew it was good, too, pumping his right fist after he landed.

His high bar routine was impressive, too. The apparatus has given him trouble recently, but he had no problems this time. He drew oohs and aahs from the crowd as he did three straight release moves — doing a somersault above the bar, coming down to catch it and then repeating the move two more times.

Morgan was already pumping his fists as his brother landed. As Paul came off the podium, he slapped hands with his twin. When his score of 9.625 was announced, the audience booed.

"I pretty much knew after high bar I was going to win," Paul said.

He made a slight mistake on his last event of the night, stepping out of bounds once on floor exercise. But he was too far ahead for it to matter. The crowd screamed as he finished, and he saluted them by pumping his fist as he trotted off the podium.

Wilson was his usual spectacular self on the still rings. While the guide wires and rings sway when most gymnasts are on the apparatus, they don't move a millimeter on Wilson's routine. He holds iron crosses as if he's standing still, not hanging 10 feet in the air.

His high bar routine was equally impressive, drawing appreciative roars from the crowd. But he had trouble on his floor routine, almost landing on his face on one tumbling pass. His vault wasn't sharp, either.

"After vault I knew it was going to be kind of tough to catch him," Wilson said. "It was kind of like an empty feeling real quick, but then it was like, `Hey, you're in second.'"

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