Sovetsky Sport. April 20, 1984. So, Vladimir Artemov, a student from Vladimir, won the all-around final of the 50th anniversary of the USSR championship. Another famous representative of the Vladimir school, Yuri Korolev, took third place. A debutant on the adult platform, 19-year-old Muscovite Mikhail Kokorin, won silver.
Presentation of the Winner. Artemov, a third-year student at the pedagogical institute, will turn 20 on December 7. He was the leader of the junior team, which he proved at the All-Union Youth Games. Last year he achieved his greatest success - he won a gold medal on the parallel bars at the world championship in Budapest.
His coach Viktor Firsov described his student as follows: "A sociable guy with a balanced character, a good student who reads a lot. We seriously thought about winning, so Volodya's routines were more difficult than at the world championships. It was only on parallel bars that we decided to stick with last year's version, and we were not mistaken - Vladimir earned 10 points."
Interview with the Winner. "Of course, I'm very happy about the gold medal. However, there was no particular struggle in the final. But, as an athlete, I'm sorry that several excellent gymnasts didn't participate in the decisive day, because only in intense competition do you get real pleasure."
Let's explain these words. Readers looking at the technical results of the final will not see all the gymnasts who previously competed for medals. After the team championship, Yu. Balabanov, A. Tumilovich, A. Tikhonkikh, and S. Martsinkiv flew off to an international competition. Olympic champion B. Makuts was injured during the competition. Let me also remind you that for various reasons, world champions D. Bilozerchev, A. Akopyan, and the winner of the USSR Cup A. Pogorelov did not come to Donetsk. Now judge for yourself - was the final of the All-Union championship a full-fledged one? The organizers probably should have adjusted the timing of the championship and given a tournament of such high rank the necessary brightness and intensity of the fight.
But one way or the other, the performance of some masters in the all-around deserve high praise. For example, Artemov did not make a single serious mistake during three days of competition, and his consistency is commendable. Ten points on parallel bars, 9.9 on high bar, and 9.75 on pommel horse. In these events Vladimir had a solid lead from his pursuers.
Presentation of the Silver Medalist. Misha Kokorin is a student of the Moscow Dinamo school. I've known his coach Evgeny Ilyin, a kind and modest person, for many years. He is a beloved mentor to the gymnastics kids, and the boys have an excellent, basic sense of who really cares about them. And now Ilyin, together with his student, is on the adult platform.
Misha is 19 years old, a military man. He's just as shy as his coach.
I'll add that Kokorin, the winner of the 1982 country's youth championship, is a persistent guy and his routines meet all the requirements of the 1984 Olympic model.
Yuri Korolev performed unevenly in Donetsk - there were breakdowns in both the compulsory program and the optional program. In the final, the 1981 all-around world champion was similar to the former Korolev. He understood he had no right to make any more mistakes and, as they say, gave it his all. Yuri was especially good on floor (9.9), parallel bars (9.75) and high bar (9.7).
Interesting routines and a unique style were demonstrated by Rodion Gabitov from Chelyabinsk, Eduard Gevorkyan from Yerevan, and Pavel Sut from Minsk. Of all the finalists, I especially wanted to highlight the 19-year-old Kharkov resident Oleg Kapetov (he took thirteenth place and fulfilled the standard of an International Master of Sports) and 18-year-old Valentin Mogilny from Leninsk-Kuznetsk. The guys are technical, with their own vision of gymnastics. They are the ones who can present big surprises on the platform in the very near future.
1984 Silhouette. I wouldn't want to be wrong, but I think Valentin Mogilny can achieve a lot. An athlete of perfect lines, he has already won the national youth championship twice in the Candidate program, and last year in the Master program as well. Valentin began practicing gymnastics in the small town of Dobropol, Donetsk region, then together with coach Vladimir Astafiev he moved to Leninsk-Kuznetsk in Siberia. There, in the famous gymnastics palace, which was opened by Innokenty Mametyev, Valentin's talent was revealed. A student of the Faculty of Law at Kemerovo University, he captivated everyone here with his amazing purity of execution and highly difficult program. 9.8 on the high bar, and 9.7 on the parallel bars and pommel horse - these scores from the championship eloquently testify to his skill. He took 30th place after the compulsory program (it was only the second time he had performed it!), then he moved to 15th, and in the final he was seventh.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
50th USSR All-Around and Team championship in gymnastics. Donetsk.
Men. All-around final. Half the sum of the compulsory and optional rounds, plus the final.
1. V. Artemov (Burevestnik)- 115.95; 2. M. Kokorin (Dinamo) - 114.975; 3. Yu. Korolev (Spartak) - 114.575; 4. E. Gevorkyan (Trud) - 113.7; 5. P. Sut (Trud) and R. Gabitov (Trud) - 113.625; 7. V. Mogilny (Burevestnik) - 113.325; 8. Yu. Porplenko (Dinamo) - 113.2
V. GOLUBEV