Yurchenko Prepares for MN-83

Moscow News, No. 9, 1983    To date, we know six girl gymnasts who have been nominated to take part in the international gymnastics tournament for the MN Prize (March 25-27).  The gymnasts will be divided into two groups: one competitive, one exhibition.

An interesting detail about the girl nominees -- three of them are coached by Vladislav Rastorotsky.  We must give this extremely experienced specialist his due for his contribution to the development of gymnastics and for the victories that Ludmila Turishcheva and Natalya Shaposhnikova have scored.  Rastorotsky's fame did not fade when these two stars left big-time sport.  Last autumn, the girls on the Dynamo team won the USSR title (in team scoring).  Half of them were Rastorotsky's trainees.  They will also be competing at our tournament, so let us start with them.

Natalya Yurchenko, b. 1965, a higher-school student from Rostov-on-Don, has been doing gymnastics since she was 12.  Last year Natalya won the MN Prize and was first in three separate exercises.  Then  she won the USSR Cup and the overall national title.  The 6th World Cup was held late in October 1982 in Zagreb.  Natalya and Olga Bicherova (USSR) shared the overall title, and in separate exercises Yurchenko bagged two gold medals.  Thus, she totaled three firsts for her, the best result among all the contestants.  She is now among the best Soviet girl gymnasts, i.e., on the top national line-up.  But MN-83 is precisely the occasion that will give her and her coach the opportunity to check up once again on how well prepared she is for the season.  Natalya, if she wins the overall competition, will be the third girl to win our prize twice.  To date, this has been achieved only by Svetlana Grozdova (1974 and 1976) and Stella Zakharova (1979-1980).

Albina Shishova, b. 1966, a schoolgirl from Rostov-on-Don, will be taking part in our competition for the first time.  Albina was the overall runner-up in the two main competitions in 1982 -- the national championship and the USSR Cup.  She is national champion in exercises on the beam.  Albina competed two years straight at the competitions in Riga.  In 1981, she won the main prize there but last year placed only sixth.  Such were her results in the last few years.  Now she has a chance to increase the number of her trophies (and not she alone, but the other girls as well) by winning various tournaments.  However, we would like to note Albina's willpower, her aspiration to win -- an asset for any athlete.  At the USSR Cup, she started off in twentieth place but finished the competition in second.

Yelena Veselova, b. 1965, a schoolgirl from Rostov-on-Don, will also compete at the MN Prize for the first time.  To date, her main achievements are performance on the winning team at the 1982 USSR championship and participation in its finals.

This page was created on November 2, 2002.