Sovetsky Sport. July 1, 1972. The country's all-around champions Lyudmila Turischeva and Nikolai Andrianov are leading at the USSR Cup after the compulsory program.
It's obvious to everyone that our gymnasts have a great responsibility. They have won fourteen gold medals in the Olympics! In the old days, our athletes took home the lion's share of these medals. And now it's necessary to revive the good traditions of Soviet gymnasts. We are so used to the fact that two gymnasts, two European champions in 1971 - Lyudmila Turischeva and Tamara Lazakovich - are having an interesting creative dispute with each other in our domestic competitions. These girls do not want to concede anything to each other, and sometimes the advantage of one of them is expressed in in insignificant fractions of a point.
As soon as Turischeva managed to pull ahead of Lazakovich by 0.15 on the uneven bars, this gap was eliminated in the very next event - on the balance beam. Both of them performed the vault the same way. The question of the sole leader of the entire compulsory competition was decided on floor exercise. Tamara peformed her routine in such a way that 9.5, with the current strictness of judging, could be regarded as generosity by the judges and recognition of the gymnast's high class. Lyudmila performed the routine just as accurately and purely, but in each of her movements there was a little more emotional charge. And emotions, as you know, exist for this, to act on sympathetic hearts. With an equal performance level, Turischeva earned one tenth more.
In the lobby, the coaches were talking: "Have you seen Korbut? She's in top form. She might win!" "Isn't it too early?" "Too early? Not at all! It's the perfect time!"
And it's true - Olya is practially bursting with excitement, and she's not afraid of anyone. She feels perfectly prepared and is eager to seriously challenge the celebrities. But from the desire to perform routines worth at least 10 points, or at least 9.9, Korbut would sometimes lose control and make mistakes. Fourth place doesn't bother Olya. She immediately stopped thinking about the compulsories ("kind of boring") and thinks about the optionals. Oh, that's where she will show herself, there she has something that will make everyone gasp.
Olga Karaseva, who is always in the forefront, is suddenly in fourteenth place. What happened? Should I ask her? Frankly, I didn't dare to approach the athlete - Olya was very upset. She jumped off the beam (8.6), faltered on the bars (8.95) and, of course, her total turned out to be low. I do not doubt at all that Karaseva will support her case, she is a fighter, her spirit never fails, but there must be reasons for these disruptions. The reasons are, it seems to me, of a purely psychological order. For some reason, Karaseva was reminded too often that her place on the team was not booked. Apparently, the reminders were made with good intentions, so that she would not reduce her training. Olga herself understood everything perfectly, but these conversations worried her too much, and she was a little confused. I know this, because I have repeatedly talked with Karaseva...
Elvira Saadi, a black-eyed girl from Tashkent, whom we all know for a long time and who are are used to considering promising, has, by the way, the third-best result so far, and the best scores on beam (9.5) and on floor exercises (9.7).
That's all the details about the women's performances. It remains to add that Zinaida Voronina and Antonina Koshel share eighth place. Now, let's move on to the men.
Nikolai Andrianov was in the lead from the first to the last apparatus, and this was natural. His exercises were distinguished by special power and amplitude. If earlier the Vladimir gymnast did not like the compulsory program, or rather, he could not properly understand the 'cipher' of the ingenious connections, now Nikolai has thoroughly studied each element and showed genuine examples of 'clear writing' in some of the exercises.
"Everything was OK?" I asked him.
"Yes, it was like nothing. Just a little tired towards the end. This is because for two days I've eaten almost nothing - for some reason all the extra weight appeared..."
In principle, both Mikhail Voronin and Viktor Klimenko were not far behind Andrianov. Each of them could take the lead at any moment, but both of them received relatively low scores - Klimenko stumbled on floor exercises (9.05) and Voronin on the high bar and vault (both 9.25).
Alexander Maleev's coach - E. Galperin - didn't hide his joy. "We have fulfilled the minimum program for today..." And Alexander himself smiled so quietly - it was clear that he was in a good mood. Maleev has been on the national team for several years, and his highest success is second place in the all-around at the V Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, and two gold medals at last year's national championship in floor exercise and parallel bars. This season, the Minsker had failures in a number of competitions, in particular, at the USSR championship in Kiev where he took ninth place. So everyone is wondering: is Maleev stable or not? And of course, for a gifted gymnast today it is so important to gain a foothold in the top six.
Maleev was overtaken by Eduard Mikaelyan, an outstanding athlete whose skills are literally growing before our eyes. The Yerevan resident performed great routines on the high bar, rings, and floor exercise.
Sergei Diomidov is probably having the hardest time of all. He is indeed a veteran, having participated in two Olympics. Diomidov competes calmly and without fuss, believes in his tremendous experience, and bravely endures the hardships of age. Massage therapist Vitaly Shuster rubbed Diomidov'a strong biceps and said, "Hang on, Seryozha, give it the old try, show that there is still gunpowder in the powder flask..." And Diomidov came out in seventh place.
After the performance of the optional program by the women, sixteen finalists who will fight for the USSR Cup were determined. In the individual competition, L. Turischeva is still in the lead with 76.35 points.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
USSR Cup in gymnastics. Compulsory program. Women. 1. L. Turischea (Dinamo) - 37.8; 2. T. Lazakovich (Dinamo) - 37.7; 3. E. Saadi (Dinamo) - 37.65; 4. O. Korbut (Army) - 37.45; 5. L Burda (Spartak) - 37.35; 6. T. Schegolkova (Dinamo) - 37.0.
Men. 1. N. Andrianov (Burevestnik) - 56.6; 2. V. Klimenko (Army) - 56.25; 3. M. Voronin (Dinamo) - 56.2; 4. E. Mikaelyan (Burevestnik) - 55.95; 5. A. Maleev (Army) - 55.5; 6. V. Shchukin (Army) - 54.95.
V. GOLUBEV