Tim Daggett

Tim Daggett was struggling with his series of back tosses on the parallel bar. They were short and shorter, and finally, he had to pause for a split second while he pushed himself back up into a full handstand. He completed the routine, but as he joined his teammates to wait for his scores, he told them, "I had no strength." The fact is, he is nowhere near full strength after the neck injury he suffered in falling from the horizontal bar in practice Feb. 17.

More than 100 gymnasts, including Olympic gold medalist Tim Daggett, will compete this weekend in the USA Men's Western championships at UCLA. The compulsory exercises are tonight at 7:30, the optional finals Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tim Daggett, America's top male gymnast and former UCLA and 1984 Olympics star, was gracious the other day when two women students came up to him on the UCLA campus and asked for his autograph. "No problem," he said when one apologized for asking him to sign the only piece of blank paper she had, a bag from a Westwood cookie shop. Daggett, 23, is back at UCLA, completing work for a degree in psychology after taking time out to help the U.S. men win a gold medal in the '84 Olympics.

Tim Daggett and Sabrina Mar are considered America's top hopes for Olympic gold in Seoul, South Korea. And, in the individual-event finals at the McDonald's Challenge, they raised fans' hopes even higher for 1988. Daggett and Mar each won two gold medals before a crowd of 4,189 Sunday at the Forum. This was after the Chinese had won the women's and men's team titles on Friday and Saturday night. Daggett, the only returning Olympian along with Scott Johnson on the current U.S.