American men slip to all-time low

AARHUS, Denmark, Oct 15 (Reuters) America's men were licking their wounds at the world gymnastics championships after suffering their worst outing in the competition's history.

The class of 2006 arrived in the port city of Aarhus with high expectations of reaching the team final and continuing the form that earned the US an Olympic silver medal in Athens two years ago.

But the six-member squad, led by national all-round champion Sasha Artemev, instead wrote an unwanted entry in the history books when they stumbled to 11th -- their lowest placing at a world championships.

They had previously finished ninth in the standings four times between 1985 and 1995 but never before have they seen 10 teams ranked above them on the scoreboard.

Head coach Mark Williams tried to put a positive spin on the situation even though the statistics told their own story.

FIRST TIME ''When you look at some of the better teams, like Japan, they have almost their entire team back and have tremendous experience (competing) together,'' he said.

''They are seasoned veterans. For Artemev and Horton, this was their first time in this situation. They just need to be out there and gain the confidence so that they can do well in that atmosphere.'' The gymnast they really needed on board was Paul Hamm, who became the first American man to capture the Olympic all-round gold in Athens albeit in controversial circumstances.

Hamm and his twin brother Morgan were the stalwarts of the team for many years. But they chose to take time out and go to university after their Athens experience.

Although the 24-year-old brothers have not ruled out making a comeback in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, their team mates and their country will want them back at the helm to wipe out memories of their Aarhus nightmare.

For a while yesterday, it all seemed to be going well.

Grouped with South Korea and traditional powerhouse Russia in the opening sub-division of the competition, the U.S. were top of the pile after four apparatus.

CRASHING DOWN But their hopes came crashing down during the final two rotations as Jonathan Horton slipped off both the parallel and horizontal bars. Artemev was also left red faced when he crashed to the ground from the horizontal bar.

With several leading nations set to compete after the Americans, team coordinator Ron Brant was keeping a close eye on proceedings and had his fingers crossed that some of their other rivals would slip up.

It was not meant to be.

Only eight teams were guaranteed a spot in Tuesday's final and confirmation of the Americans' exit came late on Saturday when they ended the day in 10th place.

To complete the sorry state of affairs, they were even upstaged by gymnastics minnows Switzerland (sixth) and neighbours Canada (fifth) in the standings headed by China.

Today, they slipped a further place down the standings and could sink lower when the remaining nations, including Ukraine and Germany, compete.

After drawing a blank in Melbourne in 2005, the American male contingent will almost certainly leave the championships empty handed for a second year running.

Coming home without a medal would be bad enough for a nation that prides itself on being a sporting superpower but humiliation on the world stage is an extremely bitter pill to swallow.

Reuters AY RN2055