Gymn Forum: 1976 Druzhba

In All Shapes

Sovetskii Sport

July 7, 1976 In the Hungarian city of Gyor, which is situated 140 km. from Budapest, was held the traditional competition of young gymnasts of the socialist countries, Druzhba. About this big and important tournament we learn from the leader of the Soviet delegation, the merited master of sport, M. Voronin.

In the competition were teams from Hungary (4 teams), Bulgaria, the GDR, Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and the USSR. Of course, specialists were very interested in this question: how is gymnastics developing in these countries? How are young sportsmen preparing for the 1980 Olympics?

Our team is ahead of the other teams. And our boys and girls won easily, with a big lead. Here is the distribution of points for the boys: USSR 276.05, Hungary 267, GDR 266.2. It's interesting that the first six places in the men's all-around (and also in the women's all-around) were occupied by our gymnasts. I propose that the boys have a big future. First place was won by Vladimir Achasov (55.65). Behind him came A. Agafonov (55.25), Sergei Shelest from Kemerovo (54.8), Alavitdin Atakhanov from Tashkent (54.6), Eduard Azaryan from Yerevan (54.3), and Muscovite Andrei Kryazev (54.25). Achasov is trained by P. Abutsaev. I notice that two students of V. Popov competed (Agafonov and Kryazev). Popov brought up Olympian Vladimir Markelov. The best non-Soviet gymnast was the Korean Kim Gwang Gwin in 7th place.

In event finals our boys missed only 2 gold medals -- the Hungarian Varga won on vault and Kim Gwang Gwin won on pommel horse. Agafonov won high bar and floor exercise, Shelest won rings, Achasov won parallel bars.

The girls' teams finished thus: USSR 190.2, GDR 185.95, Hungary 185.3. Two students of Vladislav Rastorotsky competed successfully -- Lyubov Yudina finished in 1st place (38.5) and Natalia Shaposhnikova won 3rd place, tied with Larissa Komarova of Leninsk-Kuznetsk (37.8). Stella Zakharova from Kishinev finished in 2nd (38.05). Natalia Tereshchenko from Magadan oblast scored 37.6 and Lena Aleksyutina from Moscow - 37.4.

Zakharova won vault, Yudina won uneven bars, and the Hungarian Kanyo won beam. The spectators applauded Shaposhnikova's shining floor routine for 10 minutes, an event she has won in every competition this season.

Gymnasts of the GDR, Romania and Hungary looked much weaker than our girls, especially in terms of execution. But the complexity of routines got better as the day went on. I am still convinced that all gymnasts will soon perform the necessary difficulties cleanly.