Sovetsky Sport. June 1, 1975. Nikolai Andrianov, a twenty-three-year-old student from Vladimir, won the title of all-around European champion. The bronze medal went to our debutant, seventeen-year-old Alexander Dityatin, who lost by only 0.15 to the world champion on the high bar, Eberhard Gienger (FRG).
I'll start my story with Dityatin, since it was he, perhaps the youngest of the participants, who competed first on the apparatus, the stern pommel horse, and received 9.45 here, for having done everything quite accurately, cleanly, and diligently.
Looking ahead, I'll say that the Leningrad student demonstrated on the Bern platform the maximum of what he could do, and in general, even more than we expected. The lowest score he received (9.25 on vault) is perhaps due only to the fact that, running up, rounding his eyes and puffing out his lips, he completely forgot about the pre-flight. He only thought about the vault, and bent his legs before pushing off from the horse.
But his almost 100% accuracy everywhere else showed his good schooling and strong nerves, and the confident execution of strength elements on the rings - with such thin, boyish hands - and his will, which is stronger than his strength... Third place at his age, despite the haste of his career and despite the fact that he's only been competing in senior competitions for a year...this is very nice.
Klimenko... What about Klimenko - now, in hot pursuit, it's difficult for me to explain anything, so I can only state what happened. On pommel horse, almost the same thing happened to him as in Varna at the world championship. During the execution of circles, he sat on the apparatus and practically dropped out of the main contenders.
In the same way, one by one, Thune, Szajna, and Grecu dropped out. The mighty Gienger who, on his event - high bar - received 9.7 from the demanding judging brigade led by Boris Shakhlin, and at that moment came into position for the attack. His duel with Dityatin turned out to be perhaps the most intriguing of what we saw here. Gienger, of course, is more experienced, and his muscles are simply larger, and he deservedly climbed onto the second-place step. But, I repeat, Dityatin's third place is a lot, given the fact that we don't have too many top-class athletes and each new one is a gift.
From start to finish, the electronic scoreboard of the Longines company kept the Russian name with Italian pronunciation on the first line - due to the lack of space for one letter - 'Andriano.' A list of Andrianov's scores, I believe, will turn out to be more eloquent than all my enthusiastic words. A gap of more than one point from second place shows Andrianov's unconditional superiority over his rivals in Europe.
His gymnastics word, for all its purity, almost calligraphic, this time was distinguished by especially convincing expressiveness on all events: if he flew, it was high, swift, and easy; if he froze, then it was like a stone. He had floor exercise 'like a snack' with truly champion freedom, and the ending was greeted with applause. He was so serious that evening that, having already stepped off the platform for the last time and plunged into the crowd congratulating him, he allowed himself to smily only at the fifth or sixth kiss.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
European gymnastics championships for men. Bern. May 31. All-around. 1. Andrianov (URS) - 57.9 (9.55, 9.7, 9.65, 9.5, 9.7, 9.8); 2. Gienger (FRG) - 56.85 (9.45, 9.55, 9.5, 9.15, 9.5, 9.7); 3. Dityatin (URS) - 56.7 (9.35, 9.45, 9.55, 9.25, 9.45, 9.65); 4. Magyar (HUN) - 56.3; 5. Szajna (POL) - 55.75; 6. Grecu (ROM) - 55.6; 7. Klimenko (URS) - 55.15.
S. TOKAREV