Sovetsky Sport. September 25, 1966. We are reporting these lines from the Dortmund 'Westfallen-halle,' when the fate of the women's team championship awards is still unclear. The Japanese and our gymnasts performed in the morning. We will tell you about this. But the main rival - the Czechoslovakian team - will not continue its pursuit of the leader until late in the evening.
The Japanese managed to intrigue everyone. Therefore, despite the early morning, quite a few fans gathered in the arena. Having initially disappointed with their uncertain actions on the balance beam, which turned out to be too narrow for the Japanese, they gradually picked up the pace and by the fourth apparatus, the uneven bars, they finally came to their senses, showing real class.
On the balance beam, the Japanese gymnasts did not chase difficulty. And yet the highest score, Ikeda's, was only 9.466. The athletes tried to give their floor routines a lyrical, smooth touch. It was there, but there was not enough difficulty. But the judges were favorable. Ikeda, stocky and not too light, received 9.666, and Mitsukuri and Furuyama both received 9.6.
The Japanese did not go for difficulty on the vault. One forward handspring - and five more. The scores are even, not exceeding 9.5. This, of course, is clearly not enough to fight for the highest awards. The Japanese save their brightest colors for their 'drawings' on the bars. Two gymnasts, Shibuya and Ikeda, in addition to high scores (9.8 and 9.833, respectively), also earned a standing ovation from the entire arena. Shibuya sometimes showed a simple men's style. Here is one of her combinations in gymnastics terminology: a back turn in a support from behind on the upper bar facing the lower one in a support standing on the lower one and a back turn. It's complicated, isn't it? But in person it looks like such a rapid flutter, when it seems that the gymnast is flying from one pole to another, not knowing which one to choose.
The Japanese team scores 380.923. the best among them is Ikeda - 76.997.
We will begin the story about ours with the last apparatus for them, the floor exercise.
Astakhova was the first to compete. Even her gesture with which she asked permission to begin breathed lyricism. Her movements are light and musical, and they are a tuning fork for the rest (9.466). And then - the contrast. Olya Kharlova, tiny and feisty, playful children's steps and an unexpected transtion for the viewer to adult flips and somersaults - also 9.466. The judges are stingy.
Druzhinina came out. Here is the long-awaited surprise. Zina managed to saturate her routine with worthy and convincing acrobatics. As for the rest... Zina is Zina - fiery, passionate, slightly flirtatious, beautiful, and incredibly charming. The ovation lasted for about three minutes.
After Latynina, who was applauded in a scattered manner, responding to the difficult elements (9.533), Petrik appeared. A chord plays, Larisa initially bows her head, and we fall silent since, except for us, our athletes and tourists, no one knows how dashingly Strelnikov's Bubenichki will ring out now, how Larisa will fly under them in a series of somersaults. Her score of 9.6 was long protested by the audience.
But everything is still ahead - Natasha Kuchinskaya, touchingly fragile and strong, had not yet fluttered over the carpet, she had not yet performed her desperate tricks, maintaining on her girlish face that excited trepidation that is especially captivating, especially makes you take to heart (to any heart) everything she does, the whole marathon dificulties of her routine. 9.9!
Now let's go back to the beginning. Druzhinina was the first to perform on vault. Well done - a simple handspring, but a magnificent landing (9.533). Astakhova, with her usually weak vaults, did more than expected - 9.333. Latynina, Kharlova, and Petrik performed handsprings with twists, but their landings were not so confident - they all got 9.5. Only Kuchinksya managed to perform this vault better (9.666).
Our routines on the uneven bars after the difficult and, most importantly, very fast Japanese exercises looked sluggish. There were mistakes. Only Natasha with her flights from pole to pole melted the judges' ice (9.833). Petrik got 9.7, Astakhova 9.533, Latynina 9.466, Druzhinina 9.5, and Kharlova 9.433.
The beam is our apparatus. It remained ours, although some excitement was still felt, and Latynina once wobbled a fair bit (9.466). Well done, Druzhinina performs very smoothly. Her not very difficult set of elements was neatly and cleanly done - and she didn't even mess up her hair during walkovers (9.5). Astakhova scored 9.533 (she was stingy with the height of her leaps, she simply floated over the beam), Kharlova got 9.433. Petrik walked over the abyss confidently and bravely for 9.7.
And N. Kuchinkskaya, the little miracle of our gymnastics, became a favorite of Dortmund. Her balances are fixed superbly, there are many of them, and they are well valued - again 9.833! Kuchinskaya scored 78.097 points after the compulsory and optional programs. Our team's score is 383.587.
S. TOKAREV and A. CHAIKOVSKY