Gymnastics

Gymnast Dominique Dawes, 16, of Silver Spring, Md., won the first of six rounds of qualifying at the World Championships at Birmingham, England.

Loud cheers from the mostly British crowd greeted Dawes as she approached each piece of apparatus. And she justified the support by scoring the highest marks in each of the four disciplines. First came 9.712 for her floor exercise, then 9.618 for the vault and 9.75 on the asymmetric bars. She topped those with her own best score of the day--9.812 on the beam--to complete a total of 38.892, which put her ahead of the 14 other competitors in her section.

Shannon Miller, the top U.S. gymnast, will begin her competition today.