Sovetsky Sport. October 27, 1973. Our special correspondent Mikhail Suponev reports from London.
The closer the opening of the European women's gymnastics championship gets, the more sports fans in London are attracted by the upcoming celebration of grace. Ordinary fans of women's gymnastics treat guests cordially and hospitably. But it is very unfortunate that the atmosphere of the championship is overshadowed by organization troubles.
Equipment malfunctions were discovered: locally produced mats were laid on the platform - they were hard and thin. Even in training, the athlete felt how unpleasant it was to land on them. Especially after the vault. And, of course, one of the coaches, who remarked, is right: "No, it's not the notorioius high-risk elements that threaten the health of the gymnasts, but such equipment. Here, the simplest flip could result in an injury."
The organizers have very strange attitudes towards journalists. Correspondents of the Soviet press, who are constantly working in London, cannot visit their compatriots - they do not have special passes to the hotel. Even accreditation at the press center does not help. However, not everyone has accreditation either. The London correspondents of Pravda and Trud, as well as the correspondent of Nedelya, who arrived from Moscow, did not receive accreditation. It should be noted that two years ago at the European championshipsin Minsk, no one, I should emphasize not a single, foreign journalist had any complications with accreditation: neither the one who announced himself in advance, nor the one who came without any prior notification, not even the one who arrived late for the start of the competition. I can say this with certainty, since I worked in the press center in Minsk.
All this is more surprising because the European championship is sponsored by the Sunday Times. They could have taken care of their foreign colleagues.
However, all these misunderstandings (we will limit ourselves to such wording) could not, of course, postpone the opening of the championship and influence its course. Exactly at 6pm London time, under the arches of the main area of Wembley, the chords of a march, written by a local composer in honor of the Soviet gymnasts during their visit to the British capital in May this year, sounded. There was not a single empty seat in the stands. The administration had to 'compact the audience' and install more than 2,000 additional seats. And this, mind you, in England, where gymnastics was not popular a year ago.
The opening parade was colorful: snow-white blouses and elegant ties of London girls who carried the national flags and nameplates of 23 countries, the bright costumes of 42 gymnasts, and the impeccable bearing of all the participants. Indeed, our girls marched best of all in the parade, our girls were the most elegant and beautiful. I don't know if it was planned in advance, or it happened by chance, but when the participants lined up along the entire perimeter of the platform, our girls found themselves in front of the central stands. And it looked natural - Lyudmila Turischeva and Olga Korbut are considered the main, almost the only, contenders for the title of European champion. All of London knows and loves them, and the sympathies of local gymnastics experts are divided in the proportion of 50/50: half are rooting for Lyudmila, half for Olga.
We will not rush with forecasts, especially since we saw a lot of well-known people at the parade. Here is the matured Angelika Hellmann from the GDR - the debutante of the Minsk championship and now the leader of her national team, who has passed through the Olympic trials. Here is the equally experienced Sona Brazdova from Czechoslovakia, the brave Ute Schorn from the FRG, the capable Monika Csaszar from Hungary, and many other strong rivals who must be treated with respect.
The judges took their places at their consoles. Among them are ours: T. Demidenko - judge on the floor exercises, and L. Latynina - judge on the balance beam. The day before, at a special seminar, the judges tried to develop a common point of view on the assessment of errors and inaccuracies, and took an oath of impartiality.
By the way, the reserve gymnasts who acted as demonstrators at the seminar showed a lot of interesting things. Inga Hanke from the GDR and Wanda Werbilowicz from Poland showed new elements and combinations on uneven bars. Our lovely Rusiko Sikharulidze, who showed her incendiary Malaguena also had her fair share of compliments.
Then the gymnasts from the first stream, among whom were the sportswomen of the GDR, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, entered the fray.