Sovetsky Sport. July 18, 1971. The title of all-around winner of the V Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in gymnastics among girls was won by Tbilisi schoolgirl N. Dronova, and Muscovites L. Bogdanova and I. Schegoleva also climbed to the podium.
The girls of the Moscow team managed to beat the Georgian team, and the Belarusian gymnasts took third place.
"If you didn't see Dronova, then you didn't see anything," noted one very authoritative specialist. And he's right: the thirteen-year-old gymnast was far ahead of her peers in both physical development and sportsmanship.
She understands, feels that she has become everyone's favorite, and tries not to show her childishness with even a single gesture or movement. She holds herself perfectly on the platform, stands talls, gracefully arches her back and proudly carries her blond head on her thin neck. Her eyes are big, and she sometimes even hides them so as not to give away her laughter.
Competitions are pure pleasure for Nina. Her movements are light, swift, flexible. Having finished the routine, Nina, happy, glowing with joy, turns to the judges and runs down the steps, arms outstretched like wings, and falls straight into the arms of coach Valentina Ivanovna Klimova.
Dronova is also coached by Sergei Aleksandrovich Burdzhanadze. This big, good-natured man, smiling through his mustache, is closely watching his student. It's the last chord. The numbers on the scoreboard light up. Victory! There are no happier people in the gym now than the little girl and her coaches.
Dronova's scores are as follows: vault - 9.5, uneven bars - 9.4, beam - 9.5, floor exercises - 9.75.
Lyuba Bogdanova is fifteen years old. A year ago almost no one knew her. In Ufa she showed mature skills. Bogdanova's coach is N. Maiburov, a follower of the school of our 'inventors' of new elements - Yu. Shtukman and R. Knysh. Each routine of this young gymnast had a 'zest' and an effective trick.
Now the finalists will compete for the championships in the individual events.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
Ufa. 17 July. Girls all-around. 1. Dronova (GEO) - 75.95; 2. Bogdanova (MOS) - 74.55; 3. Schegoleva (MOS) - 73.4; 4. Rtyscheva (MOS) - 73.6; 5. Lisova (BLR) - 73.4; 6. Tikhonova (RSFSR) - 73.35; 7. Gapienko (BLR) - 73.1; 8. Perskaya (UKR) - 72.95.
Team championship. 1. Moscow - 296.4; 2. Georgia - 295.25; 3. Belarus - 294.15; 4. Ukraine - 292.45; 5. RSFSR - 292.1; 6. Kazakhstan - 287.95; 7. Leningrad - 286.2; 8. Uzbekistan - 286.05.
V. GOLUBEV