Sovetsky Sport. October 25, 1970. At the world gymnastics championships, L. Turischeva is leading after the completion of the compulsory program - 38.25 points. Second and third places are shared by the GDR gymnasts K. Janz and E. Zuchold - 38.15 each. The GDR team is ahead of the Soviet team by 0.1 points. Athletes from Czechoslovakia are in third place.
The day dragged on endelessly: our girls were drawn by lot into the penultimate shift. True, the Czechoslovak gymnasts took to the platform in front of them, and then the Japanese. And of course we followed them with special interest.
Journalists were talking among themselves that it was time to hold a selection for the world championship in order to identify the strongest teams, and then the tournament would be compact. Maybe that's true. Frankly unprepared teams also perform in Ljubljana, and some countries are not represented by full teams. On the other hand, we are all convinced that gymnastics is developing quite successfully in countries such as New Zealand, Canada, Cuba, and Norway.
However, in women's gymnastics, only four teams can aspire to medal, and everyone's attention was focused on them. The first of this quartet to appear before the audience was the Czechoslovak team. They began the competition with floor exercises. In this event, the USSR representative T. Demidenko works as a judge. I asked our famous gymnastics specialist to comment on the routines of the national team's competitors.
"Of course, the gymnasts of Czechoslovakia were the strongest in their group. But the highest score - only 9.4 - was given to H. Liskova. The athletes in general looked somewhat ponderous, made errors in cleanliness, and smeared some elements. The experienced M. Nemethova (Krajcirova) performed the routines in accordance with the 'recording,' but she lost her balance, and a score of 9.2 appeared on the scoreboard."
The Czechoslovak team performed best on vault. However, looking ahead, I will note that both our and the German gymnasts received the best scores on this apparatus. The absence of a real leader predetermined the Czechs' lag. They lost two events (beam and floor) to the Japanese.
So, it was difficult for the Czechoslovakian athletes. Nemethova, the national champion, was about to lead the team, but she stumbled on the beam - 8.8. Young M. Vachova, a very gifted and quick gymnast, could take the lead (her vault caused a storm of applause - 9.6). But the beam failed Vachova - 9.0. And it turned out that B. Rimnackova, who for the time being was in the shadows, turned out to be the best, taking 12th place in the all-around.
It was the turn of the Japanese women. An 'emergency' occured in the team: at the final training session, K. Oda, with whom they had high hopes, was injured, and the reserve I. Murakami entered the battle. Before the championship, the head coach of the Japanese national team, K. Ikdea, told reporters that the country was doing everything possible to repeat the success of the world championship in Dortmund - third place in the team competition. However, Ikeda complained that she does not have such a wide choice as the coaches of the men's team.
Of course, Oda's absence affected overall result. But we witnessed the birth of a sensation: 25-year-old M. Matsushisa came in sixth place in the all-around (in Mexico City she was 17th). The competition is not over yet, but we can already say: the progress of the Japanese gymnasts is obvious.
And so we waited for our girls to appear. They were received very warmly by the public. And let's just say: there are five Ollympic champions on the team, all pretty, slender, and a joy to watch. It was agreed by all that the debutante of the tournament, T. Lazakovich, would start first on all apparatuses.
Uneven bars. A lot depends on Tamara's performance. Will she be able to set the right tone? She did it! 9.4. Our gymnasts' faces blossomed with smiles. True, O. Karaseva lost a little of her pace, but then the scores started to increase. L. Turischeva put a brilliant point - 9.7.
I was sitting a long way from the beam. And at first, I didn't understand the reason for the drama that unfolded. Here Lazakovich came out with a light, elastic step. Jump. Several elements, everything is going well, and suddenly it's like the wind is blowing her away. "No problem, Tamara, keep going!" - I want to shout. Now, for falling on the beam, judges deduct not 1 point, as before, but only 0.5 points. But after a few seconds Lazakovich jumps off again due to an awkward movement. Yes, this is severely punished - 8.0.
Karaseva gracefully flutters along the narrow beam, but at the end of the routine, when turning on one leg in balance, she almost falls - 9.0. Z. Voronina is worried and cautious (9.15), L. Petrik does a great routine, and we are sure of a high score. The turn - oh, this treacherous turn! - Larisa barely managed to avoid falling (9.25).
What is this? Has a psychological chain reaction really begun? Both Turischeva and Burda had a hitch on the same element (Lyuba even touched the beam with her hands so as not to fall). Later, Olga Karaseva told me that at first they couldn't figure out why the toe wouldn't rotate on the beam. Burda was the last one to compete on the beam; they found smeared chewing gum at the place where they made the turn. How it got there, no one knows. Coach S. Muratova cleaned the beam with sandpaper, but it was too late. Burda, apparently worried about the girls, became nervous and became a victim of a misunderstanding herself.
It's not hard to imagine the mood in which our team arrived at the floor exercise. But the desire to compete, to fight with one's all might, and the sense of responsibility took over. The scores ran up the scoreboard like a flight of stairs: Lazakovich - 9.25, Petrik - 9.35, Burda - 9.4, Voronina - 9.5, Turischeva - 9.7, Karaseva - 9.65. We breathed a sigh of relief. Everything fell into place. And the vault also went well. Turischeva scored the best amount in the team. How would the GDR team and European champion K. Janz respond?
Based on the technical results, you will see how K. Janz, E. Zuchold, and A. Hellmann performed. I will say one thing: the Germans won the balance beam against the Soviet athletes (as you know, there are six participants in a team, and the five best scores count) by 1.45 points, lost in floor exercise by 1.25 points, in vault by 0.1 point, and on uneven bars both teams had the same sum.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
Compulsory program. Women. 1. Turischeva (URS) - 38.25 (9.7, 9.7, 9.15, 9.7); 2. Janz (GDR) - 38.15 (9.55, 9.7, 9.5, 9.4) and Zuchold (GDR) - 38.15 (9.7, 9.6, 9.45, 9.4); 4. Voronina (URS) - 37.8 (9.55, 9.6, 9.15, 9.5); 5. Hellmann (GDR) - 37.6 (9.6, 9.4, 9.35, 9.25); 6. Matsuhisa (JPN) - 37.55 (9.2, 9.4, 9.5, 9.45); 7. Petrik (URS) - 37.5 (9.5, 9.4, 9.25, 9.35) and Schmitt (GDR) - 37.5; 9. Burda (URS) - 37.45 (9.7. 9.45, 8.8, 9.4); 10. Karaseva (URS) - 37.4 (9.5, 9.25, 9.0. 9.65); 27. Lazakovich (URS) - 36.05 (9.4, 9.4, 8.0, 9.25)
Team standings: 1. GDR - 188.65; 2. URS - 188.55; 3. TCH - 185.30; 4. JPN - 184.6; 5. ROM - 181.4; 6. HUN - 180.25.
V. GOLUBEV