Five seconds into the evening, Blaine Wilson looked all washed up. By night's end, he was back in contention for his sixth national title.
Overcoming an embarrassing slip during his first pass on the pommel horse, Wilson rallied Friday night to finish in third place after the preliminaries of the men's US Gymnastics Championships. With 55.775 points, Wilson finished 1.275 behind first-place Paul Hamm, last year's champion and one of the favorites, along with Wilson, to win it all again.
Between Hamm and Wilson is Jason Gatson, who has missed much of the last four years after blowing out his right knee twice.
Yes, the 28-year-old Wilson, two years separated from his last national championship, has significant ground to make up. But after the start he had, he's hard-pressed to complain about third place.
His slip off the horse was an unfocused blunder, better suited for a nervous novice than the pre-eminent American gymnast of the last decade. He scored a 7.9 for the routine and after the first of six rotations, stood in 35th place out of 37 gymnasts.
"That is very, very low to try to contend for the all-around title," Hamm said. "But I still think he's got it in him to pull it around and contend."
He showed it over the rest of the night, hitting solid routines for the most part. And when he did err, he got help from judges who have grown to appreciate him over the decades. For instance, he nearly landed on his hands and knees after a difficult vault and was prepared to try a second jump, an opportunity offered to those trying the most difficult tricks. But while standing on the runway, his score on the first jump -- a 9.8 -- popped up, and Wilson rightfully let that stand.
Results from the finals today will be combined with Friday night's scores. The top two will earn automatic spots on the World Championship team, with the other four to be determined this summer. Worlds are Aug. 16-24 in Anaheim, California.
Almost sure to make it is Hamm, who was protecting an injured shoulder, but had an impressive night nonetheless.
He opened on parallel bars, one of the events where he watered down his routine to protect the injury. Passing between the bars with ease and ending with a perfect dismount, he still scored a 9.625, losing only .075 points from a routine with a 9.7 start value.
The best score of the night belonged to Raj Bhavsar, last year's all-around NCAA university champion from Ohio State.
Bhavsar executed a high, double back flip on the vault and stuck the landing. Using the inflated scoring system designed to encourage Americans to try tougher things in preparation for Worlds, judges conferred for a few minutes before reporting a score of 9.9. It put him in first place, until a poor high-bar routine netted an 8.0 and left him in seventh.
Wilson, the national champion from 1996-2000, earned a 9.825 on his specialty, the rings. He put on his usual display of strength, moving his body in straight lines over and around the apparatus and finishing with a nice dismount and a trademark slap on his legs to signal satisfaction.
The poor pommel routine may have stemmed from his frustration during warmups in which he fell repeatedly from the high bar. When it counted, however, he had no problems, flawlessly executing the release move that baffled him earlier and scoring a 9.125.
Of course, nobody was better than Hamm, who wowed the crowd with perfect execution of one of the toughest moves there is on the high bar, a Triple Tkatchev -- a trick in which he released and flew backward over the bar, then caught it again three straight times with his body in different positions each time. He scored a 9.575.
Hamm's twin brother, Morgan, was in fifth place, not bad considering shoulder and ankle injuries that have bothered him for the past year. The 2001 champion, Sean Townsend, struggled and was in 11th place.
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