Sovetsky Sport. March 24, 1974. The grand opening of the competition was bright, colorful, and corresponded to the mood of the participants from eighteen counties. Frankly speaking, we did not know who would be the main rivals of the Soviet gymnasts. Of course, we assumed that girls from the GDR would compete, but very young and unknown gymnasts came to Moscow from this country. Nevertheless, they attracted attention, because gymnastics in the GDR, especially youth gymnastics, is now on the rise.
Our girls started with beam exercies. I note that Lyubov Bogdanova, who was supposed to participate in the tournament, got injured at the last training session, and she was replaced by Elena Abramova from Rostov-on-Don. Thus, the Soviet team had only one experienced athlete - Olympic champion Elvira Saadi - and three young girls - Elena Primak from Chelyabinsk, and Svetlana Grozdova and Elena Abramova from Rostov. It was all the more interesting to compare the skills of our 15-year-old debutantes with the skills of other gymnasts of the same age.
Svetlana Grozdova is a girl with pronounced talent. She has already performed in several international competitions and has proven herself in the best way. Her manner is a natural power style, but this does not mean at all that she is not plastic. On the contrary, Svetlana is perfectly coordinated for her age, and her movements are light and graceful. Let's say her routine on the balance beam impressed the experts with elements of rare complexity, which she so far is the only one in the world to perform them. Grozdova was especially successful in transitions where flexibility is required. When she start to squat dance on the narrow strip of the beam, at that moment the Hungarian gymnast was performing on floor exercise to a Russian melody, and it looked extraordinarily impressive. The audience was delighted.
Naturally, Elvira Saadi was considered the leader. But, as she said, she was a little tired in training. And so she worked slowly. On the balance beam, Elvira was stiff and this, of course, affected her performance. In the middle of her routine, she awkwardly turned on her toes, lost her balance, and almost fell. She made a small grimace, but managed to resist - 9.5. The Olympic champion didn't manage to exceed Grozdova's score, which was 9.7.
When we went to floor exercises, Lena Abramova had her word here. For the first time, Moscow viewers saw the performance of a tucked double somersault - an extremely rare element for women. True, Lena didn't perform it entirely successfully, and the judges were stingy to assess the risk - 8.9. But Saadi flashed again. Her score of 9.7 was the highest in the all-around.
The American women were distinguished by their eccentric routines. I especially liked Debbie Fike's beam exercise. She obviously borrowed some of her links from the exercise of Lyudmila Turischeva.
Pupils of the Rostov coach Ruslan Lavrov - Grozdova and Abramova - picked up the pace from apparatus to apparatus. Grozdova boldly competed not only with foreign gymnasts, but also with E. Saadi. And now, apparently, Saadi trembled. She started her uneven bars routine rather heavy, and in the middle of it she broke - 8.35. Svetlana Grozdova became the leader of the first shift.
Chelyabinsk schoolgirl Elena Primak showed a unique exercise on the uneven bars. There was something 'a la Korbut' and 'a la Turischeva'. It looked very cool. The synthesis of tricks and artistry gave Primak an advantage - 9.45. This was the highest score on the event.
So, after the first shift Grozdova had 37.9, Primak 37.5, Saadi 36.85, and Abramova 36.65.
Gymnasts from other countries competed in the second shift: Japan, Canada, Cuba. Would any of them be able to break the hegemony of the Soviet athletes? That did not happen.
After awarding medals to the winners of the women's competition, the men entered the fight. The competition turned out to be interesting. Many participants showed novelties, especially our guys. Although they failed as some of the difficult elements, it is forgivable at the beginning of the season.
Everyone expected to see the rivalry between the Soviet and Japanese gymnasts. But the all-around world champion E. Kenmotsu, due to a slight injury, didn't compete on floor, although he performed - and quite successfully - on the other events. V. Klimenko seized the lead from the very first event and kept it until the end. The second-place winner M. Tsukahara tried to beat Viktor, but all his attempts were in vain.
V. Shchukin, R. Mikaelyan, and P. Shamugiya made several errors, and after five rotations they were all overtaken by Wolfgang Thune of the GDR.
The third member of the Japanese team, K. Horide, looked weaker than his eminent comrades, but his basics are clean and Japanese. Unfortunately, the veteran of the GDR national team and Olympic vault champion K. Koste performed unsuccessfully.
So, the best in the all-around were: Klimenko - 56.65, Shamugiya - 55.5. He beat Thune by 0.05 points on the final event.
V. GOLUBEV