Sovetsky Sport. September 23, 1966. Our girls start with the beam. Perhaps another option would have been more advantageous for them. The excitement of 17-year-old Olya Kharlova, who was the first to step onto the beam, is understandable. Her score is 9.333. The rest were higher: Z. Druzhinina 9.366, P. Astakhova 9.466, L. Latynina 9.5, L. Petrik 9.6, N. Kuchinskaya 9.666. This is slightly better than that of the Czechoslovakian athletes.
The floor exercises were also successful. Astakhova couldn't even contribute her score of 9.533 to the team's tally. The tally included the results of Kharlova 9.566, Latynina 9.6, Druzhinina 9.666, Petrik 9.7, and Kuchinskaya 9.766.
The aggravation came during the vault. Our vaults were not very successful, or rather they were somewhat behind the fashion - not fast. Astakhova 9.233, Latynina 9.333, Druzhinina 9.333, Petrik 9.466, Kharlova 9.566, Kuchinskaya 9.633. The Czechoslovakian team is stronger in this event.
The last event was the uneven bars. Just like our competitors, we had only one case of 'voting' - Petrik. But even on the repeat she made a gross error for 9.2. The others were good. Druzhinina 9.433, Kharlova 9.466, Latynina 9.666, Astakhova 9.733, and Kuchinskaya 9.8. The competition ended late in the evening. We will return to their analysis tomorrow, but for now we will only say that after four shifts, the Soviet Union gymnasts are in the lead in the team standing (191.358), with the Czechoslovakian gymnasts in second place (190.995), and the GDR in third (187.494).
In the individual classification, Caslavska (CSSR) is ahead with 39.032, Kuchinskaya is in second with 38.865, and Zuchold, a representative of the GDR, is in third with 38.265.
S. TOKAREV and A. CHAIKOVSKY