Olympic Gymnastics: Japanese Men Upstage Rivals

Double Olympic champion Li Xiaopeng had been expected to spearhead the Chinese cause but a suspect Achilles injury limited his participation to just three apparatus while Teng Haibin suffered an uncharacteristic fall from the parallel bars.

The jittery performance by China allowed Japan to storm ahead with a combined score of 232.134.

Paul Hamm (news - web sites) underlined the United States' Olympic gold medal prospects with a dynamic all-round performance as the Americans put in a focused display to finish second on 230.419 and stay ahead of Romania (230.019) and China (229.507). From the beginning of the second rotation it became apparent that the Americans were determined to land their first team gold since 1984. Hamm, who became the first American to capture the men's world all-round title last August, staked his claim for the individual crown with dazzling and difficult displays on all six apparatus.

"It's very important to be one of the top teams in the preliminary competition and we showed everybody what we're capable of," said Hamm. The 21-year-old Hamm maintained a straight body line while executing his complex routine on the parallel bars to achieve his highest score of 9.762. His lowest mark was

9.512 on the rings.

SMELLING SALTS

Even a fall by Blaine Wilson (news - web sites) from the horizontal bar failed to distract the U.S. from the task at hand. He needed smelling salts to clear his head but remained unconcerned.

"I still have a hell of a headache right now but I'll be fine," he said.

Romania's Marian Dragulescu (news - web sites), winner of four golds at the European championships in April, ended up qualifying fourth in the all-round. He followed up a 2-1/2 front handspring vault by showcasing his powerful tumbling skills on the floor.

Hamm led the all-round qualification with 58.061. just 0.137 of a point ahead of South Korea (news - web sites)'s Yang Tae-young. Hiroyuki Tomita (Japan) was third. The biggest cheer from the flag-waving Greek crowd was reserved for local hero and rings world champion Dimosthenis Tampakos, who punched the air in delight when a score of 9.850 flashed up on the scoreboard.

"All this love the people show for us gives us strength during the performance ... and I think I can do even better," Tampakos said. Four-times Olympic champion Alexei Nemov was well below his best and chose to compete on only three apparatus for the Russians.

The charismatic gymnast brought the arena to life as he performed five release and catch movements on the horizontal bar to earn his highest mark of 9.737. On current form, Russia look like they will miss out on a team medal at a non-boycotted Olympics for the first time since 1952 as they qualified in sixth place with a total of 227.980.