Sovetsky Sport. April 2, 1972. The individual and team USSR gymnastics championship completed its second day. After the men completed the compulsory program, Nikolai Andrianov took the lead - 56.2. In second place is Viktor Klimenko, 1.2 points behind him. Mikhail Voronin is 0.1 points behind Klimenko. In the team standings, the first Army team is ahead.
The day, or rather the evening, was unusually nervous. Little tragedies played out at one end of the platform, and then at the other.
The national vice-champion A. Maleev, from the Army's second team, performed in the first shift. This is a gymnast who is pleasant in all respects. However, self-doubt prevents him from fully showing his outstanding talent. Alexander knows how to work powerfully and evenly, but if an unfortunate mistake happens somewhere, he is somewhat lost: one mistake leads to another, and then Maleev's advantage over other gymnasts melts before our eyes.
Maleev got an 8.9 for his pommel horse routine. He walked for a long time, shaking his head dejectedly. Of course, the scores were, to put it bluntly, low, and anyone could be sad. Maleev braced himself, but his nerves were still not calm on the last apparatus - high bar - and he completely lost heart. And the score was just as bad - 8.4. So one of the prospective leaders eventually fell back to tenth place.
Klimenko and Voronin behaved quite differently in a similar situation. They proved to be real fighters. Failures not only did not knock them to their knees but, on the contrary, inflamed them.
As you know, Klimenko suffered a serious injury, recovered, tried his hand at a number of competitions and approached the national championship, if not in the best shape then, in any case, with a great desire to compete for the championship title. We must also take into account the fact that Viktor was competing in the compulsory program for only the second time. Therefore, he has not had enough time to correct all the noticeable errors.
What a great start he had on high bar! What amplitude, what swing! Viktor tried so hard. His movements flowed easily and smoothly, and he decided to make the dismount match the whole successfully-performed routine. Klimenko flew to an unimaginable height - it was unexpected for him. He almost ended in a fall. Viktor had to regroup, and for this the judges deducted at least 0.5 points. The outcome - 8.9 points. What happened next?
Here's what happened. Voronin, having in front of him a benchmark score of 9.5 (obtained by Andrianov on pommel horse) and of course believing that he would be able to beat his opponent's score on his favorite apparatus, scored only...8.4. Mikhail has never been so bluntly mistaken in recent years. On the very first element, he slipped and jumped onto the mats.
I was interested in learning what Voronin was experiencing at that moment, because for him a fall is a completely 'unexplored' phenomenon.
"The thought crossed my mind that I had lost too much. I automatically continued the exercise. I ordered myself not to worry and waited for the score. 8.4. That's poor. The situation is critical. Then I thought: what, in fact, is lost? I need to work and not lose heart! So I went to the rings."
Voronin found himself in the unusual role of catching up. Only after the fifth rotation did his name finally appear among the top six. Moreover, he shared this sixth place with Maleev and S. Diomidov. The final event was the high bar. It was very successful and moved Mikhail to third place.
Andrianov was perhaps the only gymnast who did not have any mistakes. But that's not all. Andrianov refuted the opinion that the compulsory program is a stumbling block for him. Yes, last year the compulsory exercises were difficult for Nikolai, but now everything was performed at a high level. His coach N. Tolkachev worried in vain: "Kolya is still young, and he lacks experience. He is sensitive to everything that happens on the platform. Once, at a competition in an arena, something was shouted at him and he reacted - he sat on the pommel horse out of surprise. If you learn not to pay attention to various disturbances, like Shakhlin, then everything will be fine..."
It seems to me that Andrianov, at the age of nineteen, is turning into a mature gymnast without losing his youthful enthusiasm.
Soldier V. Fogel made a good impression. He first established himself in second place, after Andrianov. I liked Vyacheslav's creative attitude to the interpretation of the compulsory exercises. Fogel found something interesting in almost every intricate element, and he somehow made them look special, fresh, and original. It's a pity that Fogel also failed to avoid a fall - a terribly offensive fall - because it happened on his last event, parallel bars (7.6).
I followed the young gymnasts - Army men A. Ulyanov and V. Shchukin, and Dinamo men V. Marchenko and P. Shamugiya. Last year they were juniors and were admitted to the adult championship for the first time. The compulsory program turned out to be too big a step for them, and none of them could figure it out.
Truthfully, the overall picture of the performance of most athletes does not cause much enthusiasm - who's in the woods, who's out of the woods. It's clear that the compulsory training of the gymnasts has been unduly prolonged.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
USSR gymnastics championships. 31 March. Compulsory program. Men. 1. Andrianov (Burevestnik) - 56.2; 2. Klimenko (Army) - 55.0; 3. Voronin (Dinamo) - 54.9; 4. Mikaelyan (Burevestnik) - 54.85; 5. Bogdanov (Army) - 54.7 6. Diomidov (Army) - 54.35.
Team standings. 1. Army 1 - 327.75; 2. Burevestnik - 321.95; 3. Army 2 - 317.7; 4. Zenit - 317.1; 5. Dinamo - 316.65; 6. Avangard - 306.95.
V. GOLUBEV