updated 1:45 a.m. ET Aug. 17, 2007

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A national championship is within her grasp. And if Shawn Johnson keeps going like this, who knows what other medals might be hers for the taking a year from now.

With less than 12 months to go until the Beijing Olympics, Johnson looked every bit like America’s next superstar gymnast Thursday night, handling the pressure of national championships with the same high-flying power and confidence she’s been showing all year.

The 15-year-old Iowa dynamo was in the lead after the first of two days of competition, scoring 61.7 points to finish 1.55 ahead of Ivana Hong and 2.65 ahead of two-time defending champion Nastia Liukin, who made major mistakes on two of four events and was in fifth.

“It’s very important,” Johnson said of her solid first day. “Now, since it’s a year away, every day, the competition counts.”

Liukin, meanwhile, is less than three weeks removed from her latest setback on an ankle injury that has been an issue since last fall. She didn’t expect to win here, and almost certainly won’t after nearly sitting down on her vault landing and ending the evening with a painful-looking fall on her bars dismount.

She and her father, Valeri Liukin, who is also her coach, left the gym without commenting, uncharacteristic for the outgoing 17-year-old and maybe a sign that the ankle injury is still a factor.

Of course, with Johnson going the way she did, Liukin might have had trouble holding her off even at full health.

Johnson simply acts like she’s been here before, though her two biggest victories have come at the American Cup and Pan-Am Games earlier this year — neither with as much riding on them as this competition.

“It was definitely a confidence booster,” Johnson said of her most recent win at Pan-Ams. “It made me feel better coming in here.”

This is the first of a half-dozen big meets leading into the Beijing Olympics next year, where Johnson is poised to contend for the title of Olympic champion, first brought to America by Mary Lou Retton and brought back in 2004 by Carly Patterson.

Johnson’s poise showed the most on the balance beam. Considered the most taxing torture test in women’s gymnastics, Johnson strutted and somersaulted her way up and down without any hesitation. There was no taking time to gather herself for the next trick. She banged them out efficiently, including one in which she did a back flip with a twist from a dead standstill. The four-inch-wide strip looked like four feet when Johnson was on there.

She’s only 4-foot-9, but hardly seems small on the floor exercise. She opened with a double-twisting, double flip — she jumped so high, you could have driven a car underneath her during that trick — and landed perfectly.

Her fourth tumbling pass is one most women try to get out of the way early, a flip with a twist then another quick flip at the end, and she handled that one with no problem and another solid landing.

“I love floor,” she said. “I love to perform. Just tried to go out there and have fun.”

At the end of finals on Saturday, national team coordinator Martha Karolyi will pick six women and an alternate to go to next month’s world championships, and while Johnson is a lock, filling out the rest of the team won’t be easy.

“A few unexpected things happened, but altogether we have a pretty good picture of the shape of the girls, where they are,” Karolyi said.

Liukin should be a slam dunk, but clearly has a way to go.

Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 all-around world champion, made a strong comeback with her trademark powerful floor routine, though her recovering shoulder prevented her from working on the other three events. She scored a 14.6.

“It was my first one in nine months,” she said, referring to the injury she endured last year at worlds. “I’m ecstatic.”

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Jana Bieger struggled, bringing up questions as to whether she rushed her return after ankle surgery five months ago.

Alicia Sacramone fell to her knees on her floor exercise, an unexpected mistake on an event where she was a world champion in 2005.

“That’s what gets you the most. You make it in warmup and you’re like, ’I’m so good.’ Then in competition, it’s ’Oh, I’m on my knees,”’ Sacramone said.

And Samantha Peszek, expected to give Johnson a run at this meet, struggled and was in 10th place.

Hong, who finished third at Pan-Ams, improved her resume — the highlight of her night a painful looking twirl on the uneven bars called a German Giant.

Dangling from the top bar, she pulled herself up and back into a sitting position above the bar. Then, while still gripping the bar, she pulled her body back through her arms — only letting go of the bar as her shoulder joints were about to be dislocated.

Ouch.

Nobody outdid Johnson, who posted the best scores on vault, floor and beam and came in a close second to Liukin on bars, whose degree of difficulty was high enough to make up for her ungainly fall at the end.

Liukin walked off the mat obviously upset and her father seemed concerned after watching his daughter make more mistakes in one meet than she normally does in a month.

“Thank God it’s a two-day competition,” Sacramone said. “That way you can redeem yourself and show everybody what you have.”

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