MADISON, Wis. — It took a swimming lesson and a lot of time away from practice for J.R. Salzman of Rochester, Minn., to reclaim his gold medal at Boom Run competition in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games presented by Dodge.

"My expectations were to run the boom and not get wet, but you can see from my clothes that it didn't work out like that," said Salzman, whose previous gold medal came in 2001. This spring, Salzman skipped his usual regimen of boom practice in favor of training in the Army National Guard. He admitted to the morning crowds that he hadn't stepped on a boom for months prior to the competition.

Salzman and five more of the eight competitors went for a dip on Saturday at the Alliant Energy Center, where the 106-foot string of logs laid end-to-end pitched and rolled as competitors raced from one dock to another and back again.

In the gold medal round, Salzman, an Army National Guardsman, met Carl Rick of Onalaska, Wis. Rick, a student at the University of Wisconsin - Platteville who found himself in medal contention in his first outing at the Games.

In their final footrace, Salzman kept even with Rick out of the starting gate and onto the turning dock, but his boom was rocking heavily from the strides he took to chew up the distance. Rick began to pull ahead on the return trip but, with two logs left to traverse, Salzman poured on the power and all but dove for the dock. His momentum carried him across the dock and flipped him over a waist-high wall and into the crowded grandstands.

Judges took a few tense minutes to review the photo finish, during which the two contenders paced the start dock, flexing their hands and scuffing their toes, before ruling for Salzman.

"I'm kind of used to finishes like that with Jamie (Fischer), just diving for the finish," Salzman said.

Even though he wasn't running in the finals, Fischer of Stillwater, Minn., haunted the gold medal round. Fischer, whose dominant running earned Boom Running gold in 2002 and 2003, fell to eventual silver medalist Rick in the semifinal round when he took a hard fall, landing crosswise on the fifth log of eight on his return trip down the boom.

"I don't know what happened," he said. "I stepped between the logs, is what it looked like (on the replay). It knocked the wind out of me."

He got his revenge in the consolation round with a clean and leaping run in which he soared past Cassidy Scheer of Hayward, Wis., with the skimming, airborne style familiar to his fans in the crowd.

"It's definitely not what I'm used to," he admitted. "I still won bronze. It's not a gold medal, but it's still a bronze medal."

Admission to the Great Outdoor Games is free. The Games will be televised on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC from July 14 through July 19.

Final Standing
1 JR Salzman, Rochester, Minn.
2 Carl Rick, Onalaska, Wis.
3 Jamie Fischer, Stillwater, Minn.
4 Cassidy Scheer, Hayward, Wis.
5 Doug Goodmundson, Wayzata, Minn.
5 Fred Scheer, Hayward, Wis.
5 John Wells, River Falls, Wis.
5 Tyler Fischer, Hudson, Wis.

Results (By Round)

Final Round
JR Salzman 15.543 Split: 07.512 def Carl Rick 15.696 Split: 00.836

Consolation Round
Jamie Fischer 14.119 Split: 06.938 def Cassidy Scheer 10:00.000 Split: 07.827

Semi-Final Round
Carl Rick 15.176 Split: 07.333 def Jamie Fischer 16.823 Split: 06.417
JR Salzman 20.618 Split: 07.819 def Cassidy Scheer 10:00.000 Split: 07.265

Quarter-Final Round
Jamie Fischer 13.448 Split: 06.945 def John Wells 23.118 Split: 07.102
Carl Rick 15.493 Split: 07.623 def Doug Goodmundson 10:00.000 Split: 07.935
JR Salzman 21.629 Split: 07.818 def Tyler Fischer 10:00.000 Split: 08.124
Cassidy Scheer 20.234 Split: 08.089 def Fred Scheer 28.539 Split: 08.313