Johnson is a picture of beauty and grace

SAN JOSE -- Shawn Johnson attacked the balance beam without an ounce of daintiness and no hint of nerves. Consecutive back handsprings were thrown as ferociously as a heavyweight right-left boxing combination.

On her first event Saturday night at the finals of the Visa Championships at HP Pavilion, Johnson proclaimed with her piston legs that her nerve was sturdy and that she was going to be aggressive in going after her first senior national all-around title.

After all four events -- balance beam, floor exercise, uneven bars and vault -- Johnson, a 15-year-old from West Des Moines, Iowa, accepted a bear hug from Coach Liang Chow and a standing ovation from the crowd of 10,293 at HP Pavilion.

Johnson finished with a two-night total of 108.350. Runner-up was Shayla Worley, 16, of Orlando, Fla. Worley had 104.450, a distance from Johnson akin to finishing the mile run half a mile behind the winner.

Afterward team coordinator Martha Karolyi also announced the 2007 U.S. world championship team would include Johnson, Worley, two-time U.S. all-around champion Nastia Liukin, 14-year-old Ivana Hong of Laguna Hills, 15-year-old Bridget Sloan, 15-year-old Samantha Peszek and college sophomore Alicia Sacramone, who made the team because of her specialized skills on floor exercise and vault.

Left behind was last year’s world all-around silver medalist Jana Bieger, who was trying to come back from ankle surgery. She finished eighth in the all-around. The 17-year-old who was born in Germany and whose mother and coach Andrea Bieger was a German Olympian will miss the world championships in Stuttgart, Germany, Sept. 1-9.

Torn up knees, shredded shoulder muscles, a growth spurt, a stress fracture, a sprained ankle. Gymnastics is not a forgiving sport so Johnson’s celebration is no guarantee that, as U.S. men’s team coordinator Ron Brant said, “She looks like she’ll be the next Mary Lou Retton.”

For example 2005 world champion Chellsie Memmel only competed on floor exercise Thursday and withdrew from Saturday’s second round because she is still recovering from several injuries

But for now Johnson is firmly in command of U.S. women’s gymnastics and will be a strong contender for a world gold next month. She also won the event gold medals on balance beam and floor exercise and was the only gymnast over the two-day competition to not score under 15.00 on any single apparatus. That score is considered the number necessary to contend for international medals.

“This feels amazing,” Johnson said. “I am overwhelmed with a feeling of pride.”

Hong had been second after the first round but on her first routine Saturday, she was unable to complete one of her uneven bars swings, had to change, as she said, “to plan B,” for the rest of the routine and was, she said, “a little nervous.” Hong still finished fourth overall.

Liukin, who had left Thursday without speaking to reporters and was in fifth place, had major mistakes on her first two events -- floor exercise and vault -- but finished triumphantly, unleashing a high-swinging uneven bar routine that earned her a 16.200 score and a gold medal, then dancing sweetly across the balance beam without a stutter. She moved to third place overall.

“I was so disappointed after Thursday,” Liukin said. “You start to feel like it might not happen. Now I feel a little redemption.”

Newly crowned U.S. men’s all-around champion David Durante, 27, was named to the men’s world championship team. Also being named were: Guillermo Alvarez, Alexander Artemev, Sean Golden, Jonathan Horton and Kevin Tan, with Sho Nakamori as the alternate.

Brant, the men’s team coordinator, said the selection committee seriously considered including 2004 Olympic all-around gold medalist Paul Hamm who returned to competition last week for the first time in three years by winning the floor exercise gold medal.

Hamm and his twin brother Morgan competed only in floor exercise and pommel horse. Brant said that Paul indicated he would have been willing to be in the world championships on those two events if needed. “But the numbers didn’t work with one guy, even one as good as Paul, who could only do two events,” Brant said.

The U.S. must finish at least 12th at worlds to qualify a full team to Beijing. Last year the U.S. finished 13th.

Lisa Wang of Buffalo Grove, Ill., won her second consecutive rhythmic all-around title and four-time U.S. junior champion Rachel Marmer of Los Angeles was second. Wang, who recently won the Pan American Games all-around gold medal, finished with 128.075 points. Marmer scored 124.950. Wang and Marmer earned spots on the world championships team. Also named to the U.S. 2007-2008 national team was Delaney Lonergan of Los Angeles.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com