For senior Justin Spring, this weekend’s opportunity to earn a spot on the U.S. World Championship Team has been a long time coming.

“My 18 years in the sport has finally paid off,” Spring said. “Ever since before I could drive, about 14 or 15, my goal was to make the Senior National team in the Olympics; this is one step down from the Olympics.”

Spring will compete in the 2005 World Championships Men’s Team Selection Competition on Oct. 15 and 16 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Spring, Colo. Spring, along with 18 of the country’s best male gymnasts, will contend for the six-man team that will compete in the 2005 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia on Nov. 21-27.

“This is really an honor for him. He’s been making a great deal of strides in the last couple of years in his training,” Illinois head coach Yoshi Hayasaki said. “He’s proven to be one of the best high bar champions in the world; he’s performing very well right now.”

Spring, a native of Bourke, Va., won gold on the high bar at the 2005 Visa U.S. National Gymnastics Championsips last August in Indianapolis, where he was named to the U.S. Senior National Team and automatically qualified for the selection competition this weekend. While high bar is Spring’s strongest event, he will also compete for spots on floor exercise, parallel bars and vault. Spring said his chance to make the team is best on the high bar, but he has an equal chance on parallel bars and floor.

Adding to Spring’s chances of making the World Team have been the significant adjustments he has made to some of his routines.

“(The Men’s Selection Committee) take the guys who have the big skills and the high-start values,” Spring said.

Both Spring’s high bar and floor exericse routines will be scored from values of 10.00, he said.

“I’m doing a full-twisting, double-back over the high bar laid out; there are only three to four guys in the world who are doing this,” Spring said.

Spring’s opening pass in the floor exercise proves to be even more impressive. He will attempt a “triple-twisting, double-back pass,” making him only the second person to attempt the pass in the world. Only in the last six months did a Korean gymnast first attempt the pass. On the high bar, Spring said his greatest competition will come from Japan’s Hiroyuki Tomita, a finalist in the 2004 Olympics in Athens whose father is on the selection committee, while University of Minnesota alumnus Guillermo Alvarez will challenge Spring on the floor exercise.

This year’s World Championships format includes all-around and individual event competition, where the selection committee will use the results of the two-day meet to determine which athletes will compete in which events. The committe will reveal the 2005 U.S. Men’s team Oct. 17.

Spring’s focus on making the World Team has created a “domino effect” for the rest of the team, Hayasaki said.

“The whole team is very excited, it’s been awhile (since someone has been in Spring’s position); it’s excitement before the season starts,” he said.

In Hayasaki’s opinion, there is no reason why Spring should not earn one of the six spots on the roster, since he believes Spring is the best around in the NCAA in men’s gymnastics.

This bodes well for Spring, since the committe will be focused on selecting the six men who have the best chance of medaling, he said.

Spring, the only Illini to ever win a national title, said he will rely on his training and his consistency on high bar this weekend to challenge for one of the coveted spots.

“There’s been so much training, you just know you’re prepared to go in with confidence,” he said. “You take your sets, and you trust in your training and that’s all you can do.”