Sovetsky Sport. May 26, 1974. The women's team competition has ended at the USSR gymnastics championship. First place was taken by the Dinamo team. Gold medals were awarded to Lyudmila Turischeva, Elvira Saadi, Tamara Lazakovich, Rusudan Sikharulidze, Lyudmila Builova, and Nina Zelenkova. The gymmnasts from Burevestnik won the silver medal, and the athletes from Labor Reserves took the bronze.
Ahead of the all-around final, Turischeva is leading in the individual competition (77.1), followed by Olga Korbut (75.95), and Nelli Kim (75.65).
In recent years, our gymnastics tournaments have looked exceptionally exciting, with action-packed performances. Because there is competition, because (and this is the main thing) the gymnasts have something to show the audience, there is high skill.
So, let's talk about the course of the team competition, as it was extremely interesting. In the end, Dinamo won. This, we believe, is natural. The Dinamo team includes three Olympic champinos and a member of the national team (Rusudan Sikharulidze). There are two leaders on the Army team: Korbut and Svetlana Grozdova. The rest are of a lower class.
Burevestnik, led by Lyubov Bogdanova, was a strong team that came close. The gymnasts of this student society, during the compulsory round, were initially in second place, then dropped to fifth, but then managed to get ahead of the Labor Reserves team.
Dinamo had a very solid lead, and it seemed that they were out of reach. Since Lazakovich's leg was very sore, it was decided that she would not compete on all the events on the second day - after all, five scores were taken into account on each event. However, the team was given serious tests. On the second apparatus, Nina Zelenkovva was injured and could not compete any longer. The eyes of all anxiously rushed to Lazakovich. And again, Tamara, a proven fighter, firmly promised: "I will perform, no matter what." The gap was melting before our eyes - Sikharulidze performed without her former brilliance, and Tamara's scores were not the highest that evening. One failure, and it would be goodbye to gold medals. But the Dinamo gymnasts endured and survived.
The Labor Reserves team has five gymnasts from Belarus and one from Perm. Antonina Koshel, Lida Gorbik, and Natasha Fedotova are students of V. Khomutov; Lyudmila Savina is coached by L. Miromanova; and Larisa Gebeenko is coached by A. Neverovich. Natasha Kuzmenko (Perm) is coached by L. Berenson. It's no coincidence that we are listing the names of the students and coaches. It's nice to see coaches working creatively in their society, and that they see a modern trend in women's gymnastics. There are two girls on this team who, we are sure, that you the readers will read kind words about more than once. Savina and Gorbik are gymnasts from the generation that is marching towards the senior platform.
So, how did the dispute for the all-around title continue? It was also intriguing. If there had been an electronic scoreboard in the sports palace, then all the lines with the names of the leaders would change every now and then. Except one - first place. Turischeva was out of reach.
She seems to have forgotten how to make mistakes. All of her movements are extremely precise. But her strength is not only in her geometric accuracy. In floor exercises, she beat everyone with her high artistry, stormy emotions, and stunning contrasts. Rhythms of Africa had a hurricane pace, exaggerated poses, as if African figurines had come to life, and acrobatics - power and at the highest technical level.
There are not many gymnasts in the world who would dare to update their repertoire on the floor so often. But Turischeva boldly goes to experiments, and new, bright facets of talent open up before you on the day of its premiere. And it's very good that the coaches are constantly chirping with their movie cameras, which means that they will take their films to their cities where little girls, mouths wide open in admiration, will also watch a beautiful sport.
Olga Korbut is 19 years old. But in the two years after Munich she hasn't changed much - she has just as much enthusiasm.
One of us met her before the start of the competition and said: "We haven't seen each other for almost a year..."
"So, how is it? Have I grown up?"
"A little."
Olga laughed and ran off. She knows how to get angry, offended, how to be very serious, but immediacy still remains in her. And this is good. Competing, Olga doesn't hide her feelings; she shows everything. If she successfully completed a routine, she rejoices. If she made a mistake, she pouts at herself and at the whole world. And then she starts to warm up, so that on the next event she will surprise and stun. This is her style!
Olga remains our 'chief designer' of new elements. More precisely, it's her coach Renald Knysh. But Olya is the first one to perform them. Her vault is a 'screw' to a push with the hands and a full-twisting handspring. Eureka! Unprecedented opportunities for improving the vault are opening up. They are doing Tsukaharas, they have also mastered the forward somersault and suddenly, rotations in free flight. Yes, it's right for such creative dreamers as Knysh to get a copyright certificate.
The 19-year-old Muscovite Lyubov Bogdanova has one of the most difficult programs in the competition. Her coach N. Maiburov was unusually silent and concentrated. Bogdanova was third in last year's championship. Maiburov, a forward-looking man, is now hatching bold plans. He believes that his student could take a swing at the silver. But in 1973 neither Turischeva nor Korbut competed at the championship. How will Lyuba be now in such company? No matter what, Maiburov doesn't even think of giving up. "I really believe in Lyuba - she is a courageous person. She will hurry to the final."
The men's competition will end on Saturday. And on Sunday, we will find out the names of the all-around champions of the USSR for 1974.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
Women. Team competition. Sum of compulsory and optional programs. Scores for optional exercises are in brackets. 1. L. Turischeva (Dinamo) - 77.1 (9.5, 9.7, 9.7, 9.75); 2. O. Korbut (Army) - 75.95 (9.6, 9.65, 9.4, 9.55); 3. N. Kim (Spartak) - 75.65 (9.4, 9.65, 9.5, 9.55); 4. E. Saadi (Dinamo) and L. Bogdanova (Burevestnik) - 75.1; 6. L. Savina (Labor Reserves) - 74.75.
Team results. 1. Dinamo - 372.05; 2. Burevestnik - 370.15; 3. Labor Reserves - 368.8; 4. Armed Forces - 367.8; 5. Zenit - 365.15; 6. Spartak - 364.75.
V. GOLUBEV and E. SEROV