Sovetsky Sport. March 28, 1974. Twenty-two-year-old Vladimir Marchenko from Grozny won the traditional Riga-74 international gymnastics tournament. He beat the famous Japanese gymnast Mitsuo Tsukahara by 0.15 points. Marchenko was in the lead from the first apparatus, and his advantage could have been greater if on the last apparatus (high bar) he, confident in victory, had not simplified his dismount.
What happened: last summer, we defeated the Japanese at the Universiade, the other day in Moscow at the Moscow News competition, and now - again. The thought is already creeping in - maybe in six months everything will be just as beautiful on the platform of the world championships? Or are they, as usual, dark and cunning, trying to psychologically disarm their rivals? What lies behind the picturesque nonchalance with which the tall and handsome Tsukahara, the public's favorite, walks towards the apparatus? Why does the world champion Kenmotsu concentrate so long before his mount, moving his lips, repeating the routine like a prayer, and sometimes works sluggishly and uncleanly? Why, with all this, is the big chin of their head coach, the great Endo, so calmly jutting out?
Let's start with the repertoire. At least from the fashionable moon salto - a double with pirouettes, which he once twisted first, flying from the high bar, the same Tsukahara, the author of the Tsukahara vault. In Riga, the 'moon' was thrown as a dismount on rings by V. Marchenko and V. Boiko. Marchenko was the first in the world to insert it in floor exercise and performed it brilliantly this time. Tsukahara himself never did this. On the rings and on the parallel bars, in terms of the content of the routine, we were on an equal footing with the Japanese, but better in dismounts. On floor, in general, the picture is the same - everyone has double somersaults and double twists, except that the Japanese Horide flashed a beautiful forward planche. But one detail alerted me - it was dismounts. Why did the Japanese suddenly take them and simplify them? Only because they aren't at the peak of their form now, or is the dog buried in something else?
It is well known that they were once ahead of us in terms of difficulty. Now - and this can clearly be seen - we have reached that frontier. But I asked myself: maybe the paradox - why didn't Tsukahara perform the Tsukahara somersault - is explained by that fact that since it is now being used by so many, they are preparing new ones? And is the current simplicity just the canvas for future innovations?
On the other hand, of course, the devil is not as old as he is painted. The same Volodya Marchenko with his lightness and elegance, with the richness of modernity of his current all-around program, if he completes a competition of any rank without mistakes (say, 9.45 average - only about 0.05 better than now), he finishes very high in the standings. But Marchenko isn't the first year; there Klimenko, there is Andrianov.
What was said above was said only to the fact that one would like to hope: that our coaches also have something in store in their pockets - in reserve.
But what, with all the rest, our young people need to learn from the most experienced Kenmotsu and Tsukahara, even when they are out of shape or pretend to be out of shape, is the ability to present oneself to the public. So to speak, to work out the details of the exercise when this detail is the same as everyone else - for example, the transition from a horizontal hang to a cross on the rings, but it looks more powerful, more sculptural. "He knows how to please," Albert Azaryan said about Tsukahara in this sense, and he knows what it means to be able to please.
In general, there is something to think about, to work on over the next six months. Hope is always hope. But now it's not yet painted in a bright color.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
March 26. Men. Optional program. 1. Marchenko (URS) - 56.25 (9.55, 9.5, 9.45, 9.2, 9.35, 9.2); 2. Tsukahara (JPN) - 56.1 (9.3, 9.3, 9.45. 9.25, 9.35, 9.45); 3. Thune (GDR) - 55.3 (9.0, 9.2, 9.2, 9.1, 9.45, 9.45); 4. Horide (JPN) - 55.2; 5. Boiko (URS) - 55.05; 6. Safronov (URS) - 55.0 ... 9. E. Mikaelyan (URS) - 54.8.
S. TOKAREV