News from the Stadiums

Moscow News, #46, 1981    The 12th national youth gymnastics championship was held at the Olimpiisky indoor stadium in Moscow.  Lidia Kharisova, 14, a schoolgirl from Alma-Ata, and Vyacheslav Samofalov, 18, a student from Minsk, won the overall titles. 

Andrei Rodionenko, chief coach of the USSR youth team, said to a TASS correspondent when commenting on the event:  "More than 100 gymnasts took part in the competition among boys.  They included many interesting athletes.  The competitions showed the specialists the prospects of Soviet gymnastics.  The young gymnasts are including in their routines a host of elements which adorn performances by the country's leading gymnasts.  Of course, not everything comes out well, but they have everything necessary to develop into good gymnasts in the near future, to be able to carry on the victorious traditions of Soviet gymnastics."

Anatoly Kozeev, another chief coach from the national team, who trains the girls:  "Very few people at present know the names of Oksana Omelyanchik (Kiev), Tatyana Kim (Kishinev), Natalya Studenikina (Kherson), Armine Barutyan (Yerevan), Valentina Shkoda (Moscow), and Yelena Shushunova (Leningrad). But I think the day is already in the offing when they will be able to declare their skill."

The 21st World Gymnastics Championship will start in the same sports complex on November 23.  Applications have been received from 42 countries.

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