Sovetsky Sport. April 13, 1971. It's true that our strongest gymnasts, among whom were all last year's world champions and E. Saadi and T. Schegolkova, began the competition for the USSR Cup with floor exercises. And the finals, as it should be, ended with them. It turned out that women's gymnastics appeared before us as if in a frame of floor exercise. In the performance of the champions we saw the same routines that we remembered from last year. The same, but not quite... Bach, Dunaevsky, Bizet, and Schedrin sounded again. But there had not been such a take-off at the end of the diagonal by Turischeva, when it seemed that she was cramped under the dome of the Yubileiny. Everyone has some new interesting features. Overall, the floor exercise was great.
What was inside the frame?
Vault. The traditional 'bend-extension' is beginning to be replaced by more difficult vaults with twists. For example, Turischeva demonstrated two options: the 'bend-extension' and a handspring with a 360-degree twist.
On the uneven bars, some have a completely new exercise, and some have new elements or incredibly difficult connections. L. Burda performed her 'twirl' with her usual brilliance. But now the twirl doesn't look like a uniquely difficult element. Turischeva, L. Petrik, and T. Lazakovich have amazing inclusions in their routines. Small tragedies also took place on this apparatus. On the first day Karaseva, finishing her rapid routine, hooked her foot on the lower pole which broke her dismount. The unfortunate lower pole was also Z. Voronina's failure. Miraculously, she didn't fall onto the podium, but her fall was softened by the mats. Technically, she didn't do a dismount at all. And that's a big loss. Voronina's balance beam and vault didn't go smoothly and, as a result, she didn't make it into the finals. But her coach V. Shelkovnikov was not at all upset. He explained:
"Zina and I completely renovated routines on three events, and there was no disaster in the fact that they didn't work on the first execution. Where else can you try them? For the final competitions of the USSR Spartakiad, I have no doubt that everything will be all right."
Last year, the audience held its breath when little Korbut performed her back flip on the balance beam. And here, three people did a back somersault: Burda, Saadi, and the very young Minsk resident, V. Lisova. However, the first day was not without falls. Turischeva fell, seemingly for no reason, without spoiling the overall routine. Lazakovich suffered more significant losses. But in the finals, Turischeva. O. Karaseva, and Lazakovich had excellent scores.
Turischeva's competition unfolded in a captivating manner. Burda won the first day, and led on the second day until the third rotation. But it was difficult for her to hold onto the Cup. Not because she performed so weakly, but because Turischeva's performance on the beam and floor was beyond all praise. After the first day, Karaseva began chasing Petrik. She performed in the finals with a huge boost, gradually reduced her score, and before the floor exercise she was behind by only 0.05 points. She came out on the mat, ran on the diagonal, sparks of Russian Kaleidoscope flashed, and before the final diagonal Valery Karasev broke out: "Now just breathe, just breathe!"
He already knows how Olga can hide the enormous weight of the routine behind her irresistible smile, so much so that she has no strength left even to breathe.
Petrik responded by making a tactical move. She cheated on her new Carmen and returned to her Olympic Gypsy. But she still couldn't retain third place.
The sixteen-year-old debutantes, of whom there was a whole group, could not displace the world champions, but they were very memorable. Muscovite L. Bogdanova's favorite element (just kidding!) is the double twist. She has it both as her beam dismount and on floor. And her uneven bars dismount is extremely difficult. Here you can feel the hand of her coach and tireless inventor N. Maiburov. Minsk resident A. Koshel is growing into a reliable all-around athlete. And many showed excellent routines on individual events, which is still too early to talk about.
This means that the champions are also getting stronger. This means that, following our luminaries Yu. Shtukman and V. Rastrotsky, V. Dmitriev and R. Knysh, young coaches are also following the paths for the search for leadership.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
The sum of points of the optional program that was peformed twice. Order of events: VT, UB, BB, FX. 1. L. Turischeva (Grozny) - 76.8 (9.6 + 9.4, 9.6 + 9.7, 9.2 + 9.75, 9.7 + 9.85); 2. L. Burda (Voronezh) - 76.2 (9.5 + 9.45; 9.6 + 9.55; 9.5 + 9.5; 9.6 + 9.4); 3. O. Karaseva (Moscow) - 76.0 (9.5 + 9.6, 8.8 + 9.45, 9.45 + 9.7, 9.8 + 9.7); 4. L. Petrik (Moscow) - 75.9 (9.4 + 9.55, 9.5 + 9.5, 9.6 + 9.35, 9.5 + 9.55); 5. T. Lazakovich (Vitebsk) - 75.1 (9.4 + 9.3, 9.5 + 9.55, 8.8 + 9.6, 9.4 + 9.55); 6. T. Schegolkova (Riga) - 75.0 (9.3 + 9.3, 9.35 + 9.4, 9.5 + 9.45, 9.3 + 9.4).
M. SUPONEV