Sovetsky Sport. October 24, 1979.The 15th international Friendship tournament of young gymnasts of the socialist countries was notable for the intensity of the competition and the high scores. But to an even greater degree, it is interesting because it allows you to get ahead of the state of gymnastics reserves, to identify trends in the development of this sport. Our correspondent M. Suponev talked about this with the leaders of the teams, L. G. Ivanova and A. F. Radionenko.
Q: Two Soviet teams of girls and boys competed in the Druzhba tournament. On what basis were they chosen?
Ivanova: The difference between the first and second teams (this number is purely conventional) was visible to the naked eye. The first one is for little girls, aged 9-11 years old, and the second one is older and included 12- to 14-year-old gymnasts. We took advantage of the opportunity provided by the Friendship tournament to test our older and younger reserves.
Radionenko: The boys' teams were made up not according to age but according to the sports principle. Each of the young gymnasts went through a series of internal and regular competitions during the season. They got the right to a place in the team based on their results and advanced training. The final distribution of teams took place after the last two tests, here in Minsk.
Q: Are you satisfied with the performance of the USSR national teams at this competition?
Ivanova: Quite. I think that our girls deserve an excellent mark. In the team competition, they took the first two places, and in the all-around competition they took the first eight places. In the event finals, where only two participants from a country can compete on each apparatus in accordance with Olympic rules, they got 4 gold and 3 silver medals.
It's no less important that all the girls demonstrated approximately the same program - promising, set to the future, and almost all of them coped with it. Let me give you a few numbers to confirm. In the older team, five out of six participants ended their balance beam routine with a double somersault, and not a single one of them fell. In floor exercises, twelve athletes out of 13 included a double somersault in their routine, and most of them coped with it. This testified to the high difficulty of the programs of the young gymnasts and mastering master-level skills very well.
Radionenko: The young men didn't yield to the girls and even surpassed them. In the team and all-around competitions, our boys had the same results, and in the event finals got even more medals: 6 gold, 5 silver, and 1 bronze. But this isn't a boast - after all, we have more events.
Achieving a high result was the first, but not the main, task. The other was for the executor to carry out a pre-planned program that meets the highest requirements in terms of accuracy. The content of the exercise was very intense. I was especially impressed by the fact that not a single gymnast simplified or weakened anything.
Q: What can you say about the geographical representation in our country's national teams?
Ivanova: I will name a few names. Galya Ionas, the oldest and most experienced in the team, is from Tallinn. Before, we didn't have any national team members from Estonia. Natasha Ilienko is the all-around winner, an amazing girl, who already today combines the highest complexity with plasticity, artistry, and I would even say reverence. She was brought up in Alma-Ata by coach N. Popova. Ira Breigina, a tan girl with some touches reminiscent of Nelli Kim, is also from the capital of Kazakhstan. Ten-year-old Muscovite Olya Mostepanova, the first to perform the Delchev salto on uneven bars, is training in Moscow with Merited Coach of the USSR V. Aksyonov.
I haven't named the girls from Odessa, Lvov, Kiev, Tolyatti, Yerevan, or Sukhumi. I cannot but rejoice with such a wide geography! The only thing that upsets me is the absence of host gymnasts on the team. Apparently, something is wrong in Belorussian women's gymnastics, which gave us so many bright talents in the past.
Radionenko: Our geography is also vast. Unlike the girls' teams, we can only be happy for the Belorussian coaches. They trained four capable boys. Even better were the gymnasts from the capital: Igor Verny and Sasha Yevseev. The schools that have already proven themselves in Leninsk-Kuznetsk and Vladimir are working productively. And what's noteworthy is that there are many students of young coaches in the national team who have not previously trained gymnasts at such a high level. But these guys are potential candidates for the 1984 Olympic team.
Q: But doesn't this create a danger that young coaches, in an effort to make themselves known, force the training of their students?
Ivanova: Yes, there is such a danger. I admit that one of the young coaches stunned me with a question: "When will I be awarded the title of Merited Coach?" I had to answer the question with a question: "Why? After all, the Druzhba competition hasn't betrayed you so far. This is only the first step in a long climb to true mastery." Such hasty coaches have to be restrained, taught to respect young talents. But here, many depend on our control over their work.
Q: What's your opinion about our rivals at this competition - the young gymnasts from fraternal socialist countries?
Ivanova: I remember the performance of the Czechoslovakian team on the balance beam. 46.8 points is a very high overall result, especially considering the modern complexity of a routine. This is inferior to the total of our older team by 0.4 points. The GDR gymnasts are traditionally strong on vault. These teams, as well as the Romanian team, have significantly increased the level of choreographic training in floor exercises.
But, at the same time, with the exception of the Czechoslovak team, the rest didn't show reliable stability. The beam summed up the generally strong teams of the GDR, Romania, and Hungary. On this apparatus, they lost to the slightly weaker teams of Poland and the DPRK.
Radionenko: The Cuban team made a big impression on me, although they finished only seventh. We have met some good gymnasts from the Island of Liberty before. But for the first time I am seeing such a monolithic team, with a good fighting spirit. I am sure that a good future awaits them.
Q: What new elements and connections did you see at the tournament?
Ivanova: I have already spoken about the Delchev salto on the uneven bars. There is probably nothing more to note. But after all, the level of difficulty and equipping a routine with risky elements is very high. Now it's a matter of polishing these elements, of improving the performance skills and further increasing the difficulty. For example, our girls confidently perform the double somersault but not at the required height. This is why they are reserves. A more organic combination of difficulty and risk with expressiveness and artistry is required.
Radionenko: I seem to have a richer experience. For the first time we saw in a high bar routine two release moves in a row without intermediate elements. They were performed by Alexei Tikhonkikh from Leninsk-Kuznetsk. For the first time, giant swings on one arm were performed on this apparatus, and Sasha Tumilovich from Vitebsk performed two turns in combination with a "turntable." At the World Championships, American Kurt Thomas for the first time showed one and a half somersaults with one and a half twists on floor exercise and became the winner. But he finished the salto in a tuck, and the young Muscovite Igor Vernyi did it with a straight body. One of the Cuban gymnasts tried to perform two and a half somersaults on floor exercises, but not very successfully.
In a word, progress on all apparatuses is obvious. It's not happening evenly everywhere, but development, undoubtedly, is rising.