Sovetsky Sport. June 30, 1984. There are many things I like about these competitions in Luzhniki - the objective judging, the efficient work of the secretariat which is headed by an experienced specialist Leonid Petrov, and the order in the press center.
It was very interesting for me to watch the gymnasts from the sidelines on the day of the optional program, when the main prize was awarded. I was worried about Natasha Yurchenko, proud of my friend, admiring her character. You know, many people said that after such an injury, which she received at the world championships in Budapest, Yurchenko would not be able to go on the platform. But she did!
Natasha enjoys a special authority on our team. The oldest in the team, the most titled, she is not at all arrogant but very sweet and modest. Natasha studies at the institute and helps schoolgirls: she always explains things they don't understand and gets to the bottom of the answer to the most difficult problem. She doesn't say a word during training, she loses herself completely, works thoughtfully, and the young gymnasts try to imitate her.
Yurchenko performed diligently, but there was still a break in her training - she fell off the balance beam and did a worse routine on the uneven bars. But on the vault she received 10 points, and she showed a new floor exercise. What a good girl!
Olya Mostepanova won the Cup for the first time. How beautiful she has become! She has perfect lines, natural coordination, and impeccable purity of movement. Olga performed well in Budapest - silver in the all-around and gold on the balance beam. The fight between Mostepanova and Natasha Ilienko at the national championship in Donetsk was amazing in its intensity. There Olya fell from the beam (in general, her stability was a little imperfect) but here she changed her "habit" and spent the whole tournament ona high note of stability and confidence.
Olga is a responsible and serious person. she is a member of the Komsomol bureau (and the Komsomol organizer of our national team is Yuri Korolev) and always carries out any assignments. You can rely on her, and our girls trust her with their little secrets.
Olga now has a wonderful program, without any weak points. Her uneven bars routins is very long and impressive and her floor exercise is one of the best in the world. Well, on the balance beam she is simply inimitable. I don't overpraise Olya; I think that this season she can even become the leader of the world stage.
Tanya Frolova, a graduate of a Bryansk school, took second place at the Cup for the first time. A world champion in the team classification, she finally rose very high inthe All-Union competitions. She is a very strong gymnast, but somehow she was unlucky, and I really wished Tanya good luck. An independent girl, shelikes to think for herself, analyzes a lot with her coach Valdimir Shishkin. She performed surprisingly smoothly in Moscow - she had 3 scores of 9.7 in the optional program, and a 9.75 on the vault.
Lena Shushunova, winner of last year's USSR Cup, was third this time - a fall from the uneven bars (on a Tkachev) threw her back (9.2). Lena is an innovator on the team, constantly learning the most difficult elements in the world. Her coach Viktor Gavrichenkov says that this is the only way for them to achieve heights. Shushunova may not be as flexible as, say, Mostepanova, but she is a strong, bouncy, and brave girl. She's not afraid of anything! Therefore, in terms of difficulty, sheis now ahead of everyone in the team.
Here, Elena, if I'm not mistaken, was the first in the world to replicate the Yurchenko vault. She received 10 points.In the beam (9.7) and on floor (9.8) she also had high marks, but the uneven bars let her down...
Natasha Ilienko graduated from school in Alma-Ata and will enter the institute of physical education. The all-around champion of the country in 1984, she passionately wanted to prove her leadership here too, but it seems to me she got overexcited and burned out. At training camps and competitions we live together, and apparentlyt we suit each other. Natasha is hardworking and loves gymnastics to the fullest. She could have won here or become the silver medalist. But she failed at acrobatics in her new floor exercise (8.8) and cried bitterly: "I was preparing so hard, trying so hard, and then I fell...
We will all still have competitions, and we will try to please the fans with good scores.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
29th USSR Cup in gymnastics. Moscow. 28 June.
Women. Sum of the compulsory and optional programs (a final was not held). 1. O. Mostepanova (Moscow) - 78.05; 2. T. Frolova (Bryansk) - 77.4; 3. E. Shushunova (Leningrad) - 77.1; 4. N. Yurchenko (Rostov-on-Don) - 76.75; 5. N. Ilienko (Alma-Ata) - 76.55; 6. I. Baraksanova (Tashkent) - 76.35; 7. O. Omelyanchik (Kiev) - 75.35; 8. V. Shkoda (Moscow) - 75.1; 9. L. Kharisova (Alma-Ata) - 75.7; 10. A. Schennikova (Izhevsk) and E. Brazhnikova (Tolyatti) - 74.6.
O. BICHEROVA