¡¡   ATHENS, Aug. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Paul Hamm, the men's all-around champion and silver medalist of the horizontal bar of Athens Olympic gymnastics, said here Monday that he would not give away the gold medal.

    "I made efforts to get it. I'm not planning to give away the medal," said Hamm on Monday.

    Hamm was a lucky winner in the all-around final due to a critical juding error on the start value of his South Korea rival Yang Tae Yong, who would otherwise overtake Hamm to win the most coveted individual honor.

    Albeit the responsible judges have been punished by the sport's governing body, FIG has made it clear that the scores will remain intact, which means Hamm can still keep the tarnished gold in his pocket safely.

    "However, if FIG decides, should it be the case, I will," Hamm said, "I know that every person has his own opinion, but I'm really upset about such a case. It should not even come up. I think everyone will understand how it came, how it was. And it will be over."

    On Monday evening, Hamm, who executed his horizontal bar routine against boos from the crowds, took the silver with a score of 9.812, equaling Igor Cassina of Italy. A tie break rule turned him out to be the runner-up.

    "I did a great job today. I had a tremendous performance. It was difficult with crowds booing, but I managed to concentrate on that and got a good result," the American said.

    The boos were triggered off when Russian Alexei Nemov, who cameout before Hamm, had a great execution except a little flip in landing, but only received 9.725 points from a routine with a start value of 10.

    The judges later changed his score to 9.762, which still placedhim last in the first three competitors who had displayed less difficult elements over the bar.

    Touched by the crowds, Nemov himself stood up twice to try to calm down the angry audience, and Hamm had to step aside and waited for seven minutes to deliver his final element against audible boos.

    Hamm explained that "I came here to do my job, to do gymnastics.I have to concentrate on my sport." Enditem