Paul Hamm erased some painful memories and left Yang Wei with a familiar sinking feeling as the American snatched a thrilling gold in the men's all-round competition at the world championships on Thursday.

Yang Wei sits dejected after losing gold in men's all-around. [Reuters]

China's Yang, who had to be content with silver in the 2000 Olympic Games all-round event, led Hamm by 0.049 of a point going into the sixth and last rotation in Anaheim.

His excellent floor routine drew a score of 9.662 and left Hamm with an outside chance of glory.

To a cacophony of approval from a partisan home crowd, the American produced a breathtaking high bars routine with perfect dismount, and a reward of 9.775 allowed him to edge out Yang for gold by just 0.064 of a point.

Hamm finished with a total of 57.774, Yang with 57.710 a nd Japan's Hiroyuki Tomita in the bronze medal position on 57.435.

With the victory, Hamm became the first American to take gold in the all-round event at a world championships and his finale was all the more commendable given his experience two years ago.

Then, going into the final rotation -- on the high bar -- he blew his chance of a medal with an indifferent performance.

Yet the 20-year-old has developed so much recently that there should never have been much doubt about his mental strength at the Arrowhead Pond.

"It's like a dream at the moment," Hamm said.

"Maybe later it will sink in.

"Yes, 2001 was going through my mind because I had a disastrous high bar routine there, hitting my face.

"But I tried to block the memories out when I got on the podium -- I just knew I had to hit (the high bar routine) perfectly to win."

SCORING WELL

Paul Hamm wins gold

He had been in contention from the opening two rotations, scoring well on the floor and pommel horse.

But Yang, hoping to emulate compatriot Feng Jing's all-round gold in 2001, put a poor start on the pommel behind him to move into gold medal position after three rotations.

He stayed there through his fourth and fifth, on the parallel bars and high bar respectively, but could not completely shake off Hamm's attentions.

Yang's biggest lead was 0.099 through four apparatus, but Hamm made sure he stayed in touch by earning a 9.662 on his penultimate rotation, the parallel bars.

"I'm disappointed for myself," Yang said. "It is second again but it's already done and out of my control."

Tomita came through to collect bronze after vying with Kazakhstan's Yernar Yerimbetov for much of the night.

It was almost 2001 all over again for Yerimbetov, who led the all-round two years ago only to finish fifth after a disappointing floor exercise.

This time he came fourth, but it was his floor routine which again dragged him down, and allowed Tomita to sneak in.

"I made some mistakes," Tomita said. "So it's kind of mysterious how I got the bronze medal."

Close

Today's Top News		Top Sports News
+Commentary: Don't meddle with yuan ( 2003-09-02) +200,000 troops to be cut by 2005 ( 2003-09-02) +Beijing Games marketing plan launched ( 2003-09-02) +Flood forces 10,0000 to evacuate ( 2003-09-02) +Beijing courts announce 50 major changes ( 2003-09-02)		+ China beat South Africa 2-0 in soccer friendly ( 2003-09-02) +Sun Jihai-Seaman mix up sends Arsenal top ( 2003-09-01) +China retains top place at world games ( 2003-09-01) +Real's Makelele completes Chelsea move ( 2003-09-01) +48-year-old Olympic champion is making a comeback ( 2003-09-01)