Sovetsky Sport. October 26, 1973. Our special correspondent Mikhail Suponev reports from London.
There are no fogs in the capital of Albion. The local area is dressed in warm, soft colors, and this gives a special flavor to the 11th European women's gymnastics championships, the beginning of which is eagerly awaited here.
All participants, coaches, judges, and officials were accommodated in the cozy Eco-Motor Hotel in the north of London. The rules are strict. Arrivals are met by Mr. Michael Holmes, who bears the title of security officer. Everyone is given a special hotel pass with a photo - you won't get through without it. Cars are constantly on duty in front of the hotel, from the windows of which hefty service dogs look out. For our girls, these precautions turned out to be for the better: at least they are spared from the invasion of numerous autograph hunters.
The main Wembley arena is a five-minute walk from the Eco-Motor Hotel, where tomorrow the flag of the championship will be raised. This, of course, is not about a football field, but about a sports hall that bears the same name and is located next to the stadium. In this arena, which can accommodate about six thousand spectators, the championship of all the graces of the Old World will take place.
Our girls have already gotten to know this gym well and have had more than one training session here. Most of the participants of the championship came together in advance, and therefore the organizers of the championship set the order: some of the athletes train directly on the platform, and the others - in a small hall located behind a wall. Yesterday, the Soviet gymnasts had a scheduled training session in the small hall. What a crowd! Our national team, of course, has been well remembered since its post-Olympic visit to England. And, naturally Soviet athletes, primarily Olympic champions L. Turischeva and O. Korbut, were the center of attention.
Lyudmila and Olga looked absolutely calm. They trained in a business-like manner, happily. Lyudmila 'walked' through all of the evnts, and repeated all the most difficult connections and elements. True, she did not show everything from her updated arsenal. Olga, on the other hand, trained mainly on the vault and uneven bars, where she performed her famous 'loop,' and some of the local gymnastics fans could not resist applause.
In terms of experience, our athletes are noticeably superior to the rest of the participants in the competition, among which there are a lot of very young names. The skill of Olympic champions is known throughout the world. The demanding R. I. Knysh was not completely satisfied with Olga this time. V. S. Rastorotsky also muttered something to Turischeva. But this, as they say, is not on merits but from their great exactingness. In any case, it is not the preparation of his pupil that makes Rastorotsky excited, but the news gleaned from a press report that Czechoslovak gymnast Renata Stodulkova is the first to perform a double somersault on floor exercises: "Well done! What a difficult element to perform! We have been trying to learn it for a while, but we can't muster the courage. But we'll wait. Let's see who will be the first to show it at an official competition..."
According to the preliminary data, more than forty athletes are expected to participate in the European championship. They are divided into two shifts. We will perform in the evening, in the second shift, and start with floor exercises.