Sovetsky Sport. October 26, 1974. Japanese gymnasts are the world champions again, for the fourth time in a row. These gymnasts won gold medals: Shigeru Kasamatsu, Eizo Kenmotsu, Sawao Kato, Mitsuo Tsukahara, Fumio Honma, and Hiroshi Kajiyama. Our gymnasts (Nikolai Andrianov, Viktor Klimenko, Eduard Mikaelyan, Vladimir Marchenko, Paata Shamugiya, and Vladimir Safronov) won the silver medal. Going into the individual final, Kasamatsu is still in the lead, and Andrianov has moved into second place.
This time, Nikolai warmed up especially diligently - both in the training room and before each apparatus, and when he was already standing at the apparatus he kept shrugging his shoulders and warming up his muscles. On the rings, having gone into his cross, he even shook with a slight trembling from the effort. On the high bar, he swung in revolutions and soared up to the ceiling in a white ball in a triple somersault. He seemed to throw down a gauntlet to the great gymnast Tsukahara, who also showed a triple in training but, performing in the next shift, didn't dare to accept the challenge this time. Kolya remained the first performer of this trick on the world platform.
In the optional program, Andrianov scored 58.4 - the same as Kasamatsu. Now bite your elbows, guess how it would have turned out if he had not made a mistake in the compulsory floor exercises.
There was one worrisome thing: on his last apparatus, floor exercise, Marchenko, the inventor of the moon somersault on this event, landed awkwardly and jumped off the platform on one leg. Volodya Safronov rushed headlong after the doctor, and Andrianov limped out to the awards ceremony. Of course, there is one more day before the final. Now, all hope is for Dr. Legonkova.
Foreign colleagues only ask us about one thing: "What happened to Klimenko?" The Olympic champion on the pommel horse missed the dismount on this apparatus (9.2), missed a handstand on the rings (9.2), and didn't reach a handstand on the parallel bars (8.65)... Our leading coach Leonid Arkaev kept touching Viktor's left shoulder and forearm, and Viktor grimaced. He didn't even go near the high bar, he didn't even warm up, although he did put on his handguards at the last moment. He wanted to try himself on the floor exercise, but the competition doctor ran up and forbade it.
I then found out that Viktor's shoulder muscle was pinched, something like temporary atrophy. Very late in the evening, I was talking to the famous Bulgarian former gymnast, the multiple national champion Nikola Prodanov, and he told me: "I think it's nerves, I think he tried too hard and some nerve burned out like a light bulb filament."
Perhaps that's exactly what happened. As we know, throughout his entire sporting career, Viktor has struggled with the precision of his movements, a skill he didn't acquire in childhood and which never became a firmly ingrained habit. This magnificent athlete puts in an enormous effort of willpower not only to perform the elements, but also to constantly control his feet and knees, doing what comes automatically to others. And this time, trying not to let his team down, his muscles and nerves simply couldn't withstand the strain. That seems to be the case.
The rest of our team looked great this evening - including Safronov, who impressed with a Tsukahara vault with a full twist and, not being the tablesetter, immediately raised his score to 9.7. And Shamugiya (if he hadn't actually fallen off the mat after the triple twist)... And if only his landings had been more precise. However, we'll return to this question later.
The Japanese approached their next victory with a not-so-calm gait. On the very first apparatus, they lost Sawao Kato, a two-time Olympic champion. While working on the high bar, he injured his right hand, fell off, powdered his palms, grabbed the bar, stubbornly went to the same element, and fell again. Then, with only his left hand, he helped his comrades to carry sports bags, and any score of 8 on all six events could go against the Japanese. But they all got along well. The elegant Kasamatsu and the impeccably correct Kenmotsu led their teammates to success.
The gap between the second and third places, between us and the athletes of the GDR, remained or even slightly increased in comparison with the Munich Olympics. Let's take into account that they did not have K. Koste in their roster, but in general the team is clearly improving. I remember the original and bold element on the high bar performed by B. Jager - a somersault forward with legs apart to a hang. I remember how W. Thune, doing a piked front somersault on vault, literally folded in the air like a knife, and landed, not moving, to his full height.
In a word, there was something to see that evening. But we didn't see much, absorbed by the main event of the men's gymnastics of the world - the duel between the national teams of Japan and the USSR, a duel that the Soviet team failed to win again.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
World gymnastics championships. Varna, 24 October. Men. Sum of compulsory and optional programs (optionals scores are in brackets). 1. Kasamatsu (JPN) - 116.1 (9.75, 9.8, 9.75, 9.8, 9.65, 9.65); 2. Andrianov (URS) - 114.95 (9.65, 9.7, 9.8, 9.8, 9.7, 9.7); 3. Kenmotsu (JPN) - 114.5 (9.7, 9.7, 9.4, 9.65, 9.55, 9.5); 4. Thune (GDR) - 114.2; 5. Tsukahara (JPN) - 114.1; 6. Kajiyama (JPN) - 113.8; 7. Mikaelyan (URS) - 113.75; 8. Marchenko (URS) - 113.5; 9. Szajna (POL) - 113.35; 10. Jager (GDR) - 112.9 ... 12. Shamugiya (URS) - 112.45 ... 17. Safronov (URS) - 111.25
Team results. 1. Japan - 571.4; 2. USSR - 567.35; 3. GDR - 562.4; 4. Hungary - 552.8; 5. FRG - 552.65; 6. Romania - 547.25
S. TOKAREV