Sovetsky Sport. October 23, 1974. After completing the compulsory program for women, Lyudmila Turischeva is confidently leading, ahead of Olga Korbut by 0.3 and Angelika Hellmann from the GDR by 0.95 points. The USSR team is 4.6 points ahead of the GDR team.
I would like to intrigue you with the sharpness of the competitive plot, but television and radio still brought news from the championships ahead of me, so I will turn to the details. On this day, a small and fierce hurricane swept along the coast, breaking several trees and smashing several windows to smithereens. The events of the championship, with apparent smoothness, also seemed like a hurricane for the moment.
The judging was so strict that the first "9" on the scoreboard appeared somewhere around 1pm (the competition began at 8:30am). This score was received by the Bulgarian M. Boncheva on floor exercises. This milestone wsa surpassed by the Polish gymnast L. Matraszek only at 6pm, having received 9.15 on floor exercises. And then came the GDR girls, without Karin Janz, without Erika Zuchold, and their faithful friends who left the sport. Only Hellmann remained, the youngest of that generation, thin and like a watercolor (if you can imagine watercolor on metal). But led by her and the young Annelore Zinke, who's called the 'brunette Janz' in the GDR (she has the same figure, gait, posture, and calmness), the team started working like clockwork - almost uninterrupted. They received only one score below 9 points (on beam) for the whole evening. They worked, as they say, one on one, and the scores 'rolled up' as if according to a precisely drawn schedule: for example, on vault the scores went from 9.05 to 9.4, and on uneven bars from 9.3 to 9.6. Their landings were dead, with no movement. They performed the elements impeccably correctly, living copies of each other, only with different hairstyles. Ellen Berger, representing the GDR as a judge on the uneven bars, with all her impartiality, simply shone with happiness.
And my heart skipped a beat - what if it is imaginary, the confidence in our notorious success? What can stop these girls?
They wobbled on the beam. But what does it mean to 'wobble'? Zinke fell. The rest looked fine. Floor exercises also passed normally, but it was here, in this normality, in correctness, the superbly trained team of six stood out. Everything looked clean, it's true, but maybe too smooth and without much inspiration.
But my heart still ached before the last group, before our shift: they are all just different, each one is a person - their own style, their own handwriting, their own soul - what if this doesn't turn out to be in our favor? In the end, the compulsory is obligatory, maybe sameness is exactly what is needed?
We also started on vault, and during the warm-up we were quite obviously worried - there was not a single exact landing. The team is generally young. But then the unstoppable roll of tenths went on again, and the landings improved. Korbut landed, back arched sharply, her arms spread like wings. In the stands, flags in the hands of Soviet tourists fluttered, and she threw a sly and triumphant look to them. Turischeva didn't look around; her attention was at a far point of the arena where her coach Rastorotsky was sitting. The silent mysterious sign that his huge palms depicted was enough to calm her, to give her confidence, for a high score. This most impressive spectacle played into the hands of Rastorotsky. And what he portrayed with them: he demanded readiness, and consoled, and got angry, and despaired. When later the judges discussed a score on the uneven bars for a long time, he beat his fist into his hand. But he didn't rejoice, he is a stern man.
The tablesetters were in turn Dronova, Sikharulidze, and Kim. Pay attention to what level they immediately took, what tone they set for the team. Vault - Dronova, 9.25. Bars - Sikharulidze, 9.25. Beam - Kim, 9.3. Floor - Dronova, 9.45. Nina Dronova chatted, laughed, turned pale and blushed, yawned nervously. In a word, she smoldered and burned. Here, a huge role was played by Polina Astakhova, our leading coach. We remember and know what a calm and benevolent 'curent' Astakhova can radiate.
And here is floor exercise - again, in theory, the same set of movements, the same melody - this time it is Gliere. But how differently they were interpreted! Dronova was tender and direct, Kim was mysterious and impenetrable, Sikharulidze was languid and passionate; Saadi was exquisite; Korbut was lively and excited; Turischeva (who at the end smiled broadly, perhaps for the first time that night) was turbulent, bold, and strong. Even amidst the ovation, it seemed that at that moment one could hear Rastorotsky's noisy sigh of relief.
I will give you our series of scores on floor: 9.45, 9.55, 9.65, 9.7, 9.75, 9.85. Violetta Shishamnova is the coach of the victorious Bulgarian rhythmic gymnastics team. "Bravo" was all that she repeated.
So, everyone performed well - maybe with the exception of Saadi, who was especially nervous and fell off the balance beam. Her score (9.0) was our lowest score of the evening.
Today the main strength of our team is their diversity, their different handwriting, and their expressive brightness. You can be highly trained, you can master the technique, but individuality and personality in modern women's gymnastics is still evaluated by the full score itself.
Readers should excuse me for not focusing on the performances of other interesting teams - for example Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, the USA, Japan. I will definitely do this in the next reports. This time, I think it was more important to tell what song the championship has. It's a sonorous song.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
World gymnastics championships. Varna, 21 October. Women. Compulsory program. 1. Turischeva (URS) - 38.95 (9.6, 9.65, 9.85, 9.85); 2. Korbut (URS) - 38.65 (9.5, 9.75, 9.65, 9.75); 3. Hellmann (GDR) - 38.0 (9.4, 9.6, 9.45, 9.55); 4. Kim (URS) - 37.65; 5. Medvecky (HUN) - 37.6; 6. Dronova (URS) - 37.55; 7. Sikharulidze (URS) and Czaszar (HUN) - 37.5; 9. Saadi (URS) - 37.45; 10. Zinke (GDR) and Dornakova (TCH) - 37.0.
Team standings. 1. URS - 190.8; 2. GDR - 186.2; 3. HUN - 184.65; 4. TCH - 182.8; 5. ROM - 180.85; 6. USA - 180.3.
S. TOKAREV