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Updated at 9:32 a.m., Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Gymnastics: Wilson earns spot on U.S. men's team

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Five-time national champion Blaine Wilson earned a spot on the U.S. men's gymnastics team today, and will receive funding for three months as he trains in an attempt to make his fourth Olympics.

Yewki Tomita, Sho Nakamori and Justin Spring also were awarded three of the final 15 spots on the team, which were filled out over the weekend at the Winter Cup Challenge.

Defending Olympic champion Paul Hamm, Raj Bhavsar, Joseph Hagerty and Sean Townsend earned spots based on their scores in the all-around at Winter Cup, while Tomita, Nakamori and Wilson got theirs based on a more complex formula that factored in their scores on individual events.

Wilson, trying to make a comeback at 33, finished in the top 10 in all four events he competed in at Winter Cup.

Spring, who withdrew from the competition while he continues to rehabilitate his injured knee, made it on a special petition for injured athletes.

Not on the 15-man list was Olympic silver medalist Morgan Hamm, who is overcoming a torn pectoral muscle and hopes to compete at an April meet that will serve as a qualifier for the national championships. A new U.S. men's team will be chosen after nationals, which are May 22-24 in Houston and are the first step in the selection process for the six-man team for the Beijing Olympics.

The seven gymnasts who went to last year's world championships — including national champion David Durante and Sasha Artemev — remain on the national team.