Time of White Bows

April 9, 1976  The women's all-around competition at the sports palace was ruled by white bows.  Even the strict judges have begun to lose their heads.  "Right from kindergarten!" said one of them.  But once on the podium, this "kindergarten" showed very complicated skills.  Fourteen-year-old Masha Filatova, from Leninsk-Kuznetsk, wore very big bows and had a big desire to please the audience.  She performed complicated tricks on floor exercise.  In Moscow on floor she had touched her hands to the mat.  Here, she showed a clean exercise and got the highest score of anyone on this event.  She surprised herself by doing so well on her first event - beam.

The main prize of this competition is called the "amber beam."  And not by chance - everyone strives for success on this tricky event.  The miniature Filatova worked on this event quickly and in an acrobatic way.  By the way, the judges' scores of the Soviet girls on beam were in the same order as their final placement on the podium: Maria Filatova, Elena Davydova, and Lyubov Bogdanova. 

Voronezh gymnast Lena Davydova touched her hands to the mat on floor exercise and earned a low score (9.3).  But she received the absolute highest score - 9.75 - on vault, which allowed her to pass Bogdanova.

These three were the leaders of the meet in the second session.  But in the first session there were four more Soviet athletes - L. Gonchenko and 3 others from Latvia - who competed as reserves.  Trainer  of the USSR team, Larissa Latynina, said that she was pleased to watch the exercises of young Inessa Yurkyan (she had the fifth highest total, 36.8).

Technical results
International gymnastics competition "Riga-76". Riga sports hall. 7 April. Optional all-around competition, women.
1. M. Filatova (USSR) - 38.45 (9.7, 9.5, 9.65, 9.6); 2. E. Davydova (USSR) - 38.1 (9.75, 9.45, 9.6, 9.3); 3. L. Bogdanova (USSR) - 38.0 (9.55, 9.5, 9.45, 9.5); 4. D. Smolikova (CSSR) - 37.1; 5-6. L. Gonchenko (USSR) and T. Slivova (CSSR) - 36.6.


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