Hamm Takes Winter Cup Challenge

In his first all-around competition since being crowned Olympic Champion in 2004, Paul Hamm returned in style with a victory at the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas. With a tally of 185.850, Hamm’s victory was by a margin of over seven points. Raj Bhavsar earned silver (178.600) and Alexander Artemev (178.100) earned bronze.

“It’s the first competition, you don’t know exactly what to expect, how the judges will judge your routines, what type of scores you can expect,” Hamm said of his return. “I was happy, you know, my training held up [and] I was able to make it through two days of competition….It’s very grueling to do all-around with the new Code of Points and I made it!

Hamm began the evening on pommel horse with a stellar set and appeared to be on cruise control through most of the competition. After the event, Hamm said that he had struggled in warm-up and wasn’t sure how he would hold up through all six events, but then felt fine in competition. His only struggle on the day was a fall on his Kasamatsu 1 ½ vault in the third rotation where it appeared that his block off the horse was a little crooked. He ended the night with a terrific floor set that included a whip half to front double twist to Barani mount and a stuck double layout dismount to punctuate the day’s performance. As he walked off the floor, Hamm raised his hands in the air, acknowledged the crowd, and breathed a big sigh of relief with a giant smile on his face.

Rounding out the top six at Winter Cup were David Durante, Joey Hagerty and David Sender. Durante, the current U.S. National Champion, has been hampered by a sore left knee which limited his training leading to this event.

Finalists at the Winter Cup Challenge advanced to tonight’s competition based on a points-ranking system from the qualification round that eliminated about half of the field. Scores from both days of competition counted toward the final rankings for the all-around and individual events.

The Winter Cup Challenge also served as a re-ranking competition for the U.S. Men’s Senior National Team. Based on performance at the Winter Cup Challenge, seven gymnasts will earn National Team positions, with four based on point totals and three added by committee.  Immediately named to the team based on points were Hamm, Bhavsar, Hagerty and Sean Townsend, who finished seventh overall. The final three should be added within the next 24 hours. The seven members of the 2007 World Championship Team, which placed fourth in the team standings, automatically retain their national team status. Those team members include Artemev, Durante, Guillermo Alvarez, Sean Golden, Jonathan Horton, Sho Nakamori and Kevin Tan. This newly formed U.S. Men’s Senior National Team of 14 will retain their positions until the 2008 Visa Championships in May.

International assignments will come from this group, with the Tyson American Cup up next in New York City on March 1^st. Hamm, Horton and Bhavsar will represent the U.S. at that event. Hamm and Horton were previously assigned to the event while Bhavsar earned his spot based on his performance at the Winter Cup Challenge.