Sovetsky Sport. August 23, 1984. A few days ago, the Prague newspaper Mlada Fronta, predicting the upcoming international gymnastics competitions in the city of Olomouc, cited the words of the coach of the Czechoslovak team S. Vizina, who, after his student H. Ricna, named the main candidates for the medals of the upcoming tournament a quartet of girls from our team - N. Yuchenko, O. Mostepanova, I. Ilienko, and E. Shushunova - along with 19-year-old Gnauck from the GDR. The first day of the women's team competition in the compulsory program is behind us, and we must note that the coach of the Czechoslovak national team was almost correct in his predictions.
Just like the day before, when the draw sent our men's team into the first shift, it did the same for our women's team, which competed immediately after the opening of the competition. How will our team, noticeably different compared to the October world championships, show itself? Let's return to the events of the evening and go through the stages of the starting part of the tournament.
Test One. Express commentary from Olympic champion and member of the women's technical committee of the FIG, L. Turischeva:
"Gymnasts from all over the world have been mastering the compulsory program shown here for four years now, and it's not surprising that the best athletes are close to perfection in its performance. There are, of course, variations. Some are more athletic, others strive for plasticity. But in general, the level of preparation is very high. Mostepanova, Yurchenko, Gnauck and Ricna were especially good. True, the judge's discerning eye found some errors in them, so we didn't get any 10s."
Let us add to Turischeva's words that floor exercise was the only event where the USSR lost to the GDR team, although only by 0.05 points.
Then it was on to the vault. Express comments from Merited Master of Sports L. Ivanova:
"The forward flip [front handspring] with a twist has also been used by gymnasts for four years. Everything seems to be clear. But each of the contenders for victory strives to find something of their own in the standard, to vault higher, further, and land more precisely. Real masters succeed in this, and often it's difficult for us to find a mistake. If in jest, you don't know what to 'scrape' the hundredths for."
The opinion of two of our famous former gymnasts may give you an idea of the high level of competition in Olomouc. The main event of the evening was the triple scores of "10" by Moscow schoolgirl O. Mostepanova. No matter how inclusive the judges were, they did not find any errors in her graceful manner of performing the vault, uneven bars, and beam, and only in the floor Olga lost 0.1 points.
It's not surprising that blonde Olga made the most significant contribution to our team's achievement. And her success was supported by her friends, especialy the all-around world champion N. Yurchenko. After the injury she received at last year's world championship in Budapest, Natasha was unable to train regularly for almost five months. And here she is again on the platform. She shines again. She got 10 points on the uneven bars and high scores on the other events. As a result, Natasha is in second, 0.2 behind Mostepanova.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
Druzhba-84 international gymnastics tournament. Olomouc
Team standings: 1. URS - 197.6 (O. Mostepanova 39.9, N. Yurchenko 39.7, T. Frolova 39.4, N. Ilienko 49.35, E. Shushunova 39.15, I. Baraksanova 38.8); 2. GDR - 196.05; 3. TCH - 194.85; 4. BUL - 193.2; 5. HUN - 189.55; 6. PRK - 188.15.
Individual competition: 1. O. Mostepanova - 39.9;2. N. Yurchenko - 39.7; 3. M. Gnauck (GDR) - 39.65; 4. H. Ricna (TCH) - 39.55; 5. T. Frolova - 39.4; 6. N. Ilienko - 39.35.