Nancy Armour (AP), BOSTON— Shawn Johnson was still in the corner, chalking up and waiting for the go-ahead when her floor exercise music began. It was the closest thing to trouble she had all day.

The reigning world champion shrugged off the glitch with her music, winning her second straight title in the U.S. gymnastics championships Saturday and taking the first round in a rivalry with teammate Nastia Liukin that is sure to captivate all the way through the Beijing Olympics.

“It definitely feels great to be in the position I am going into the trials and Beijing,” said Johnson, who has lost only one meet in the last two seasons. “Overall, I feel like I had a really good meet.”

Johnson’s score of 127.5 was the highest at nationals since the open-ended scoring system began in 2006, and was a point better than Liukin.

Liukin and Johnson are completely different gymnasts, which is what makes watching them so entertaining. Johnson is power and precision while Liukin is grace and beauty. Johnson is one of the strongest tumblers in the world, and she makes the balance beam look 4-feet-wide, not 4 inches. Liukin has such perfect body lines, it’s impossible for her to get in an ugly position, and dancers could learn a thing or two from her.

But both are very, very good.

“I have a lot more confidence in my vault now,” said Johnson, who fell the first time she tried it in competition. “I feel like I can just get better at, work on the landings.”

Both were dazzling on beam, tumbling and twirling high in the air as easily as if they were on flat ground.

That brought them to floor, the event where Liukin had stumbled Thursday night.

Johnson went first, and the event is the perfect showcase for her bubbly personality. She gets nosebleed-high on her tumbling passes, yet lands them so solidly she may as well be settling into quick-dry cement. She bounds around the floor with a smile on her face, looking not too different than the kid who used to stack her toys together so she could climb on them.

“I love performing my new routine, and I feel like it really fits me,” said Johnson, who found her “August Rush” music herself. “It’s a lot of fun. I feel like I can play to the ground and enjoy what I do.”

Johnson was beaming even before she saw her score of 16.2, which put her out of Liukin’s reach.

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