Sovetsky Sport. July 17, 1971. The all-around winner of the V Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR in gymnastics among young men was eighteen-year-old Minsk resident Vladimir Shchukin. Georgian athlete Paata Shamugiya was awarded the silver medal, and Vladimir Marchenko (RSFSR) took third place. The Belarus boys won as a team, ahead of teams from the Russian Federation and Moscow.
Volodya Shchukin jumped off the platform and Paata Shamugiya flew up to him. He hugged him and stopped: "Well done!" This Shamugiya guy is on fire. He won't sit still for a minute. He kept asking the coaches, "How is Shchukin? And how is Marchenko? How far am I behind?" He couldn't wait for his turn to go to the apparatus - he ws really eager to compete.
And yet, Shamugiya, a student at the faculty of chemistry at the Tbilisi Polytechnic Institute, was the happiest. He has such a resilient character. He made a mistake on his parallel bars exercise. Someone else would have given up, but this only spurred Paata on. On the high bar, the next event, he earned 9.5. Here he is, the silver medalist of the Spartakiad. He is trained by G. Burdzhanadze.
Shchukin seemed not at all interested in the events on the platform; he did not utter even two words during the competition. Complete detachment. Composure. The coaches were busy counting scores, his comrades were heatedly discussing the progress of the team competition, and he sat on the sidelines, kneading his sore shoulder and looking intently at one point. This behavior reminded me of Mikhail Voronin.
"To tell the truth, I wasn't sure that Volodya would perform so well - he was plagued by injuries in the winter. But here it was as if he had a second wind. I like him for his calmness and judgement. Volodya is a third-year student at the Belarusian Institute of Physical Culture, training diligently. Together we watched a large number of film clips from the national and world championships, and composed the most successful exercise options. He does well at school, was interested in radio engineering, and made receivers. He loves music very much and makes electric guitars himself. It's just that he's shy about singing. This is out of modesty..."
This is what coach A. Ovsyak said about his student. He works at the Minsk School of Higher Sports Excellence and brought four students to Ufa.
When I arrived at the competition, I found coach K. Vakherman and asked him about his relationship with Volodya Marchenko. Let me remind readers of the essence of the matter. In May, I was on a business trip to Grozny and wrote about the unworthy behavior of Marchenko, who became arrogant and tried to run away from his coach - in a word, he behaved defiantly.
"You know," Kim Efimovich told me excitedly, "the article affected Volodya like an electric shock. People didn't recognize the guy. Many people came up to him and shamed him, but he firmly answered: 'I will improve.' Volodya isn't a stupid guy, but he has character. We talked to each other, man to man. And I saw that he realized all his mistakes. Now I have no complaints about him. He's training and prepariing to go to the institute."
On my own behalf, I will add that Marchenko showed another side of his character. After the compulsory program, he was in sixth place (he received 7.9 on the rings), but managed to become a medal winner. This also speaks about the fighting qualities of the young gymnast.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
Ufa. 16 July. Boys all-around. 1. Shchukin (BLR) - 110.6; 2. P. Shamugiya (GEO) - 109.65; 3. Marchenko (RSFSR) - 109.35; 4. Safronov (UKR) - 109.3; 5. Sergeev (MOS) - 108.35; 6. Nedbalsky (BLR) - 107.95; 7. Gasilin (RSFSR) - 107.8; 8. Ivankin (MOS) - 107.65.
V. GOLUBEV