By Leonid Arkaev, Head Coach of the USSR Men's Gymnastic Team
Sovetsky Sport. November 28, 1974. Unfortunately, I didn't have such a rich choice as Larisa Semyonovna had. But from the beginning of the year, we focused on those guys who fulfilled the plan of the last season. And at this year's competitions, those who competed in Varna showed stable results. Only at the last training sessions did A. Maleev noticeably give up, so we moved V. Safronov to the main team.
The course was the same - on difficulty. Only in this way could the guys stand out and gain the necessary 'pluses' in the fight against the formidable Japanese gymnasts. For two years the members of the national team learned from six to twelve elements from the highest dificulty group. You know, the work done was colossal. What is worth, for example, N. Andrianov's triple somersault on the horizontal bar and V. Marchenko's 'moon' salto in floor exercise! In recent years, only the Japanese have demonstrated record-breaking stunts, but in Varna our athletes shone.
We placed our main bet on Andrianov and Klimenko. They were to compete for awards in the all-around, while in the individual apparatus competition E. Mikaelyan, P. Shamugiya, and Marchenko could, according to our calculations, get a medal somewhere. But suddenly, an unforeseen circumstance... Klimenko falls on his first event, pommel horse. Then he makes a gross error in floor exercise...
What happened? I think Viktor was burned out. And the reason was a miscalculation in preparation. With his coach M. Klimenko, he tried to train privately and trained on an individual plan, although we pointed out to them the possible error of such training. Klimenko avoided competitions, and cited an injury at the USSR Cup. Having decided to give everything in Varna and achieve success there, Viktor did not calculate his physical and psychological strength.
We now understand that Andrianov could have become the all-around world champion if he did not allow a breakdown on the floor exercise. I think that the judging in a number of cases was biased (a too high score for S. Kasamatsu on the parallel bars after a fall, and a low score for Andrianov on the high bar in the final). By all indications, Nikolai became the leader of world gymnastics - to his high class, he needs a little more composure.
In the team competition, we lost to the Japanese by 4.05 points. And our guys lost 3.6 of those points in the compulsory program. Having caught up with our rivals in terms of difficulty (and in some places, outperformed them), we still generally lag behind in performance skills and class. However, the prospects for our team are obvious. Four gymnasts entered the top ten. Worthy of praise are Edvard Mikaelyan, who became sixth in the all-around, and Vladimir Marchenko, who won a bronze medal in parallel bars. And Andrianov has a rich collection: 1 gold (rings) and 5 silver (all-around, pommel horse,vault, parallel bars, team).
Our gymnasts still have unused reserves to improve the purity of their performance and to develop stability. We also have a lot of hope for our juniors - we will see some talented athletes for the first time at the USSR Cup for adults in April next year. It's a pity that for now the juniors' offensive is 'delayed.'