Sovetsky Sport. September 26, 1981. MINSK, September 25 (our special correspondents). The winners of the USSR Championship in the men's team competition were the Belarusian gymnasts: Minsk natives Oleg Dmitriev, Pavel Sut, Viktor Levenkov, Vladimir Goncharov, and Anatoly Shikovets, along with Alexander Tumilovich from Vitebsk. Their team amassed a total of 579.25 points.
The men's competitions on the second day serve a dual function: on the one hand, they determine the winners of the team championship; on the other, they establish the standings for the individual competition ahead of the second round of optional routines - the phase that ultimately decides the all-around champion. This is now the standard practice at the Olympic Games and World Championships, and it is likewise the case at our national championships. Balancing these two objectives is by no means a simple task. Team competition demands, above all, consistency and reliability, because a single gymnast's failure deals a severe blow to the entire squad. Yet in individual competition, it is dificult to achieve success without taking risks. Is it possible to fuse bold daring with cool-headed prudence? It's essential! Such a feat is typically within the grasp of only seasoned masters - those who have learned to exercise strict control over their emotions. Within the team, they are, as a rule, the leaders.
In the Belarusian sextet - which held the lead following the compulsory program - there was no single, clearly defined leader. The young men were roughly equal in both age and experience. Yet, the very first day of competition revealed who would ultimately bear the mantle of leadership within the Belarusian squad. That role was assumed by twenty-year-old Pavel Sut. His start in the optional program was modest; he committed several minor errors during the floor exercise and received a score of 9.1 - a result that did not count toward the team total. And this was the score posted by the team's leader, no less! In such a situation, it would be all too easy to falter. But Pavel was buoyed by his teammates; each man strove to perform not only for himself but for Pavel as well. Perhaps none did so more than the team captain, twenty-two-year-old Viktor Levenkov. He felt he owed a particular debt to the squad. During the compulsory program - despite being the most experienced of the six - he had committed two serious errors and now felt duty-bound to give back to the team what he had inadvertently taken away. He failed to successfully execute a unique optional vault - a move in which a round-off on the runway immediately precedes the takeoff from the apparatus. He overextended himself during the initial phase of the vault, and that first mistake triggered a cascade of subsequent errors. However, on the remaining apparatuses, Levenkov performed with renewed vigor, precisely balancing calculated risk against technical mastery.
Perhaps the team's cohesion - that shared surge of spirit - helped Sut regain his self-confidence, and from then on things began to look up for him.
Meanwhile, the hosts' chief rivals, the gymnasts of the Russian national team, wore expressions of grim concentration. They had been forced to concede a handicap before the competition even began. The ailing V. Belenkov was unable to take to the floor, and consequently, every score earned by every gymnast now counted toward the team total; any slip-up would deal a blow to the entire squad. Here, too, much depended on the team leader. Nominally, that role belonged to Alexander Tkachev, yet the team felt his presence only through the official score sheets. Due to a scoring system - often baffling to the average spectator - that allowed for parallel classification, he competed as a member of the Moscow team, though his results contributed to the totals of two squads: Moscow's and the RSFSR's. In practical terms the RSFSR squad was left with just four gymnasts. The youngest among them - nineteen-year-old Yuri Korolev - stepped up to shoulder the heavy burden of leadership. He executed his routines on three apparatuses flawlessly. But after the fourth, he bit his lips until they nearly bled: his vault had gone awry, earning him a score of just 9.15.
The Belarusian team pulled further ahead with every apparatus. Yet, another danger loomed - a psychological one. The young, inexperienced athletes were swept up in a wave of elation as, with every step, they drew closer to the gold medals. The medals seemed within arm's reach! In this situation, their coaches helped the young men maintain their composure - for most of the athletes possessed only limited experience competing at the highest All-Union level. The Belarusian team held their own admirably, committing not a single error. They concluded their routines on the high bar amidst the thunderous applause of their compatriots - a sound that rang out quite uncharacteristally against the traditional silence of the gymnastics hall. This marked the first time the Belarusian men's team had achieved such a major success.
In the battle for the individual title, there was a moment when Tkachev caught up with Sut. However, he immediately committed an error during his high bar routine, and the Belarusian gymnast once again pulled ahead. He was closely challenged by B. Makuts, who executed a routine that fully met the demands of the day - performing with such inspiration that it seemed to harbor no particular difficulties whatsoever.
Before turning to the technical results, bear in mind that the score from the final optional program performance will be added to half the combined scored from the first two days. Consequently, the point gap between the leaders is effectively halved. In other words, in the final, everyone starts with a clean slate.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
USSR Championships in gymnastics. Men. Sum of the compulsory and optional programs. 1. P. Sut (BLR) - 114.55 (9.1, 9.7, 9.6, 9.5, 9.6, 9.65); 2. B. Makuts (UKR) - 114.2 (9.5, 9.55, 9.7. 9.4, 9.5, 9.5); 3. A. Tkachev (MOS) - 114.05 (9.5, 9.5, 9.6, 9.45, 9.55, 9.3); 4. Yu. Korolev (RSFSR-1) - 113.85; 5. A. Akopyan (ARM) - 113.05; 6. V. Goncharov (BLR) - 113.0; 7. E. Azaryan (ARM) - 112.65; 8. A. Atakhanov (UZB) - 112.6; 9. A. Shikovets (BLR) - 112.5; 10. A. Tumilovich (BLR) - 112.05.
Team competition. 1. Belarus - 579.25; 2. RSFSR-1 - 572.9; 3. Ukraine - 565.15; 4. Moscow - 563.75; 5. Armenia - 559.20; 6. RSFSR-2 - 558.3.
V. GOLUBEV
M. SUPONEV
S. TOKAREV