Sovetsky Sport. May 6, 1975. Our special correspondent Mikhail Suponev writes from the European Championships.
On a friendly evening, cheerful and noisy, in Ibsenhoussen (this is something like our House of Culture), the 10th European women's gymnastics championships ended. And before that, there was a day filled to the brim with emotions, some drama, and loud applause - another happy day for the young Romanian Nadia Comaneci. Medals were given on the individual apparatus.
In the first exercise, the athletes had to perform two vaults from different families. But since it was not the average, but only the best score that would count, this requirement was reduced to a nominative formality. Four finalists demonstrated various variants of the Tsukahara. Only R. Schmeisser from the GDR performed a 360-degree handspring. Half of the finalists chose the ordinary 'bend-unbend' [Yamashita], which is now included in the compulsory program. No one showed a real pike or an extension like Olga Korbut. The best performer of the Tsukahara was, no doubt, Comaneci. In the second phase of the vault, she soared high after hitting the board with absolute accuracy. Her score of 9.8 did not seem excessive at all. Nellie Kim was the only one who performed two vaults of equal difficulty for the judges to consider. The day before, at the press conference, she said that she had something up her sleeve that was just as good as the Tsukahara. Not very knowledgeable local journalists looked at Nellie with some distrust: what, they asked, could be more difficult than a Tsukahara? Kim 'clarified' this in vault finals - she did a handspring with a 540-degree twist. The judges were not generous. They were mainly evaluating the landing, which was not perfect for Kim. She got a 9.45 - the same as Lyudmila Turischeva who took a step forward after landing her Tsukahara. But no one could take the bronze medal away from Kim.
If Comaneci had an obvious advantage on vault, due to her better first-day score, then on the uneven bars the situation was different. The all-around European champion had 9.75 points in reserve, but the world champion on this apparatus, Annelore Zinke (GDR), received the same score on the first day. The 16-year-old from Dynamo Berlin showed a routine in which there was a Korbut Loop (although it was not performed with full amplitude, like that of the pioneer) and a somersault between the poles - a 'trademark' element of the GDR. She did everything well, clearly, boldly, and received quite a decent score - 9.8. How would Nadia respond?
Comaneci performed a long routine filled to the brim with super-difficult elements. The judges, headed by E. Berger from the GDR, did not immediately find any 'penalties,' but they nevertheless found something and put 9.9, an extremely rare score in general in gymnastics, and the only one at the championship.
Beam finals began with small dramas. First, the pretty Eva Kralova (CSSR) fell from the apparatus, and then Zinke followed her sad example. Comaneci's advantage was undoubted. Her original and difficult routine ended with a double twist, performed with catlike softness and an excellent landing.
Nellie Kim seemed to be walking up the stairs a lot that day. First, she shared third place on vault with Romanian A. Goreac, then she took the bronze on uneven bars, performing a sharp routine with a magnificent 540-degree pirouette. She had a hard time on beam, especially psychologically, because she performed immediately after the athletes who had fallen, and in such instances there is often a kind of chain reaction. Kim, performing almost the entire routine on her toes, did Korbut's somersault so superbly that the audience roared with applause in the middle of her exercise.
Finally, the floor exercises. Turischeva was the first performer. She did a new routine to a Russian melody, noticed not only by specialists but also by the spectators, who received her exercise very warmly. Yes, that's the trouble - at the end of the first diagonal, Lyudmila slipped and stepped a little off the carpet. The judges first gave her 9.65, and then took off another tenth.
Kim was downright dazzling in the floor final. With magnificent enthusiasm, she performed her 'samba' temperamentally, decorating it with high tumbles. A score of 9.85 earned her the title of European champion in floor exercise. The first to congratulate her was her older friend, Olympic champion Lyudmila Turischeva.
At the 10th European Championships, our gymnasts won the same number of medals as at the previous one - 6. But their quality was different. In London, there five golds and one silver. In Skien - 1 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze. Moreover, at the 9th championship, Korbut competed only in the all-around. In a word, our gymnasts didn't have their best performance in Skien. But there is absolutely no reason to talk about a decrease in their class. We must be aware that a gymnast has appeared in Europe who is already capable of battling with our leader. Turischeva could not beat Comaneci in the form that she was in in Norway. It was beyond Kim's power, although her performance should be recognized as quite successful.
Our athletes enjoyed great popularity and recognition among the Norwegian spectators. The inhabitants of the land of harsh rocks turned out to be no less temperamental than Italian or Brazilian fans, and awarded the Soviet girls with loud ovations. But these standing ovations should not interfere with a sober analysis of the results of the championship. At first glance, you can see that a whole galaxy of young gymnasts is on the rise, which were not yet in the Olympic national teams of the Munich era. There are Schmeisser and Zinke from the GDR, Kralova from Czechoslovakia and, first of all, Comaneci. Almost all of them are distinguished by the highest difficulty and...some lack of expressiveness. We must hope that all this will be taken into account by our coaches in preparation for the XXI Olympic Games in Montreal, which are getting closer every month. And from this point of view, the rehearsal in Skien is extremely useful.