Sovetsky Sport. October 5, 1974. The USSR Cup in gymnastics and the national championship in individual events recently ended in Vilnius. This was the second, and last, stage of the selection for the world championships in Varna. The upcoming tournament is the biggest gymnastic event of the year. World championships, as you know, are held between the Olympics. And the championships in Bulgaria occurs just halfway (in time) to Montreal. Therefore, today's conversation about the skill of male gymnasts is with an Olympic view.
In my opinion, I will start with the main thing, with the fact that the general level of gymnasts, judging by the national championship and the USSR Cup, has increased significantly compared to, say, similar competitions in 1972. This can be easily proved by comparing the average score of all competitors, the number of difficult elements in routines, and the performance class. However, this process is natural, because a serious restructuring in the work with young athletes began four years ago, when our men suffered a heavy defeat at the world championships in Ljubljana, without winning a single gold medal. It was that failure that really alarmed the entire sports community, and our gymnastic house was buzzing like a beehive.
Yes, the correct conclusions were drawn from the defeat, and the experts developed specific measures to improve men's gymnastics. Particular attention was paid to the activities of specialized sports schools, to a young galaxy of coaches who could put the work on a new track.
Already by the Olympics in Munich, we had made noticeable progress, but the results of the Olympic tournament showed that the growth rate of our guys was not enough: the Japanese were again first in the team standings. True, the two gold medals of Nikolai Andrianov and Viktor Klimenko meant something. But, to be honest, the team members themselves understood that, although a lot had been done, more remained to be done.
But the former head of the men's team Vladimir Smolevsky (now the head of the gymnastics department of the State Central Institute of Physical Culture and Sport) and the current one, Leonid Arkaev, led a solid line developed by the gymnastics department of the USSR Sports Committee, which is based on the widest coverage of all (I emphasize - all) gifted athletes of any age. To do this, both the employees of the department and the members of the Presidium of the All-Union Federation went to and still go to youth competitions of societies and to places where they take note of capable children. A large group of interesting young athletes will perform for the first time at the USSR Cup in March of next year. Leningrader A. Dityatin, Tashkenter G. Yakunin, V. Tikhonov from Grozny, Muscovites A. Lev and V. Markelov, and V. Achasov from Minsk, according to all objective indicators, have the right to claim a place in the 1976 Olympic team.
As for the world championship, the shape of our team was clearly defined even at the national championship in Rostov-on-Don. In fact, the coaching council at the last stage of preparation will have to decide the question of only the sixth member of the national team. In general, this is a positive fact, because those who were "planned" to get to Varna managed to achieve this.
Even after Munich, members of the national team were given very specific tasks for the next two years. For some gymnasts, these (certainly difficult) tasks were beyond their power. But N. Andrianov, V. Klimenko, E. Mikaelyan, P. Shamugiya, V. Marchenko, V. Boiko, V. Safronov, A. Maleev and other members of the main team and candidates for it learned from 6 to 12 elements of the highest diffiulty. But it was these eight gymnasts who ensure stability and, as you understand, the team for the world championship will be formed from them.
Andrianov and Klimenko proved to be excellent all-arounders, with practically no weak points. Both have competition experience, difficult exercises, and have a high class of performance. Both are now on the rise, and special hopes are pinned on them.
At our domestic competitions, Nikolai and Viktor 'ran away' from the other participants at a fairly solid distance. Therefore, today we cannot say that all members of the future team are equal to them. Almost all contenders have completely unique routines in their repertoires (and this is very important, these are the fruits of colossal work).
I do not undertake to make predictions about the performances of our guys in Varna, but I am convinced that Soviet gymnasts will boldly fight for the championship with their eternal competitors. Boldly because the guys themselves feel they have grown decently over these two years and have worked conscientiously.
So, I want to emphasize once again that our male gymnastics has taken a step forward. But is it a big step? We will find out later. A clear progress in the complexity of the leading masters gave an impetus to better training of young men. Young guys of 15-17 years old, who are included in the like of the Olympic reserves, also mastered extremely difficult elements. The trouble with our coaches was that in their work they focused on the present day, trying to imitate the leaders of the season. But since gymnastics is developing rapidly, the mentors didn't have time to rebuild. As chess players say, they lost the pace (time).
Now we have a group of coaches who 'see the future'. G. Rastorotsky (Grozny), R. Syrkin (Tashkent), V. Turovtsev (Alma-Ata), A. Yarmovsky (Leningrad), P. Abutsaev and V. Gusakov (Minsk), V. Belyaev and V. Popov (Moscow) have pupils who are growing, whose talent and prospects are beyond doubt. The whole point is to bring them to the heights of the Olympics.
Despite the fact that we have long had so many interesting young gymnasts at once, the advance of the young to the forefront is still not fast enough. But a detailed conversation about the Olympic prospects for men's gymnastics, we need to continue after the world championship.
A. SHANIYAZOV, coach of the gymnastics department of the USSR Sports Committee