Sovetsky Sport. April 23, 1980 (our special correspondent). The final in the gymnastics all-around is one of the most exciting spectacles. In this decisive phase of the competition, as nowhere else, strong character traits of the participants are clearly manifested, and roughness and flaws in the programs become more visible.
Alexander Tkachev's victory was convincing and impressive. He was in the lead from the first apparatus to the last, and he didn't have a single serious blot. Although he performed at the last world championship, Sasha looked even better now. Tkachev proved that he is completely ready to fight on the Olympic platform: his program has been verified and polished to the smallest detail, and most importantly, an important psychological barrier has been broken. He has never been so confident and strong.
The day before, members of the national team met with Party and Komsomol veterans and with heroic participants in the Great Patriotic War. The meeting was chaired by the secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of Ukraine, Valery Borzov. The gymnasts were ordered to adequately defend the authority of the Soviet school at the Olympic tournament - to win as many gold medals as possible. Then the athletes and coaches laid wreaths at the monument to V. I. Lenin.
With a fighting spirit, the finalists took to the platform. Everyone harbored hopes to rise higher: some - to get medals, some - to enter the cherished top six. Tkachev was the first to start on floor exercise and immediately made it clear to his pursuers that he would fight to the victory. It is not in vain that his routine is considered the most difficult in the world - there is a double layout somersault, a moon salto, and a double tuck at the end. Add here a soft, springy manner and smooth transitions. So, he got a good score (9.65).
The student from Voronezh also did an excellent job on pommel horse - 9.7. He left the platform, sat down on a chair and said to his coach Mikhail Voronin: "I'm terribly tired..." Voronin became alert: was Sasha really burned out? But he smiled and reassured him: "You were worried, so you overextended yourself. But now all the apparatus are yours. Close your eyes for a minute and get ready for the rings."
And sure enough, everything went like clockwork with Tkachev. He didn't say anything to the coach, he explained himself with gestures only. He didn't blush and didn't turn pale, like he used to. Behind him, his opponents changed positions: sometimes he learned that someone, somewhere, was getting applause for a trick, but he himself remained, as it were, indifferent to everything that was happening and was firmly moving towards the goal.
Who pursued Tkachev? Fedor Kulaksizov from Dnepropetrovsk. We haven't seen this 23-year-old gymnast so collected for a long time. The same age as Tkachev, Markelov and Dityatin, Fedor suffered catastrophic failures over these five years. Everyone lost faith in him, but his coach Yegor Kolesnikov believed: "I have never met such a hardworking guy. He gave everything for gymnastics, and now we are both happy."
Kulaksizov, by all accounts, wasn't even thinking about second place, but about first. A powerful physique and physically strong, he easily controlled his body and proved to be a true all-arounder.
World champions Vladimir Markelov from Moscow and Bogdan Makuts from Lvov, as well as Tbilisi's Makhaz Tataradze and Rostov's Sergei Khizhnyakov, could compete for third place. Markelov, after his pommel horse exercise (9.8), did not concede third position to anyone, while the others had mistakes.
Of course, everyone was interested in the question: will any of the young ones be able to challenge the famous masters? Just imagine, there was such a daredevil - a tenth-grader from Alma Ata, Maksim Tsygankov. Last year, he was second at the Druzhba tournament, and here he simply hit a unique high bar (9.7). What high releases, what risky revolutions on one arm, what a technical triple somersault! Twelfth place is a decent result for the pupil of V. Turovtsev.
Tkachev finished the competition on an excellent note: 9.8 was the score for his excellent performance on the high bar. He ran off the platform, answered the greeting of the audience with a charming smile and, for the first time, went to receive the gold medal of the all-around champion of the country.
Well, where was Nikolai Andrianov? He decided that he wasn't ready enough to compete at top speed, and refused to participate in the final. Unfortunately, Elena Mukhina, Maria Filatova, and Tatiana Arzhannikova also left the competition. I don't presume to judge whether they did the right thing, but I believe that at the national championship everyone should be obliged to perform even through "I can't".
Unlike the men, where the picture of readiness is generally clear, the future team for the women is not yet clearly visible. Practially only Nelli Kim went through the competition without disruption, in one breath. This means that there are still many problems with stability for the Olympic candidates. Natasha Shaposhnikova from Rostov made a mistake on the uneven bars (9.0), Elena Davydova from Leningrad on the beam (9.35) and uneven bars (9.25), and young Natasha Ilienko on beam (9.0). All these gymnasts, as well as Stella Zakharova from Kiev, Elena Naimushina from Krasnoyarsk, and Svetlana Agapova from Yaroslavl, are of a high class; almost everywhere they showed beautiful and difficult routines, but they don't have such iron stability as Kim does...
Now the athletes will compete for awards on the individual events.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
46th USSR gymnastics championship. Kiev. Sports Palace.
All-around final, men. Half the sum of the compulsory and optional programs, plus the finals total. 1. A. Tkachev (Dinamo) - 115.35; 2. F. Kulaksizov (Army) - 114.7; 3. V. Markelov (Army) - 113.95; 4. E. Azaryan (Army) - 113.575; 5. B. Makuts (Army) - 112.925; 6. V. Levenkov (Dinamo) - 112.625; 7. S. Khizhnyakov (Dinamo) - 112.125; 8. A. Atakhanov (Burevestnik) - 111.35; 9. A. Anisimov (Dinamo) - 110.9; 10. M. Tataradze (Army) - 110.75; 11. V. Belenkov (Burevestnik) - 110.475; 12. M. Tsygankov (Dinamo) - 110.425.
All-around final, women. 1. N. Kim (Army) - 77.1; 2. S. Zakharova (Labor Reserves) - 76.7; 3. E. Davydova (Spartak) - 76.425; 4. E. Naimushina (Dinamo) - 76.125; 5. N. Shaposhnikova (Dinamo) - 75.075; 6. S. Agapova (Spartak) - 75.9; 7. N. Ilienko (Dinamo) - 75.7; 8. G. Ionas (Labor Reserves) - 75.325; 9. E. Polevaya (Dinamo) - 75.2; 10. N. Karamushka (Labor Reserves) - 74.425; 11. E. Ponomarenko (Dinamo) - 74.4; 12. T. Konovalova (Army) - 74.25.
G. BORISOV
V. GOLUBEV