Sovetsky Sport. April 21, 1985. The 51st national gymnastics championship continues at the Alma-Ata Sports Palace. The men finished their performance in the compulsory competition. The leader is last year's all-around national champion, Vladimir Artemov from Vladimir (57.0 points), and the team of Belarus is in first place.
The men gathered a strong company of famous stars, where everyone could take the lead roles. But the new compulsory program, which the gymnasts themselves recognized as very difficult, brought considerable confusion into the dispute between the contenders for the championship.
It got colder in Alma-Ata and, of course, it wasn't hot in the Sports Palace, so the guys warmed up especially carefully during the warm-up, rehearsing the most "delicate" parts of the routines. I approached coach Alexander Alexandrov and asked how his student Dima Bilozerchev was preparing. The usually affable Alexandrov was unusually pale and quickly answered that he was worried about Dima's legs. They were hurting, and last year's injury was making itself felt.
However, the 1983 all-around world champion began confidently and after performing on rings (9.7) and vault (9.5) he took the lead. In the camp of his pursuers, some made serious mistakes, some fell off the mark, and some didn't even complete a whole routine. Then it became clear that, unfortunately, the compulsory program was still poorly mastered by most gymnasts; apparently, they spent little time on it in training. It's clear that many masters are performing these routines in public for the first time but, on the other hand, they should have prepared better for the national championship.
Oddly enough, the Belarusian national team also made quite a lot of mistakes, but in the end they were ahead of the other teams. Alexander Tumilovich from Vitebsk spun too much on the pommel horse (8.55) and vaulted weakly (9.15). Minsk resident Pavel Sut got stuck on the rings (8.65), and his fellow countryman Vladimir Artemev missed the vault (8.2). As you can see, the scores were unusually low, and this psychologically affected even the always-stable Bilozerchev. Dmitry fell from parallel bars (8.75). Yes, he was upset, it was obvious, but he decided on the next event, the high bar, to perform the routine so that everyone would gasp. The Muscovite started very powerfully, on the verge of taking a risk. He did an arc lift with a hanging turn, and then everyone really did gasp - the gymnast's hand caught the air instead of the bar. Miraculously, Dima held on, didn't jump onto the mats, and managed to finish the routine at the proper amplitude. But a mistake is a mistake - only 8.2. In total, Bilozerchev got 55.1, and he currently shares ninth place with Tbilisi resident Vladimir Gogoladze and Lvov resident Stepan Martsinkiv.
What are the opinions of experts about the gymnasts' level of performance skills in the compulsory program and about the difficulty of the routines themselves?
Olympic champion Viktor Klimenko was one of the judges on the rings: "The routine on this apparatus is interesting. It has many well-known elements but there are almost no new ones. Only Bilozerchev was able to truly "write out" each connection. But I think that the guys will quickly improve their rings; it will be more difficult for them to perfect the exercises on the parallel bars and the horizontal bar."
Olympic champion Alexander Tkachev assessed the performance of the participants on the parallel bars: "Yes, there is something a bit too much on this apparatus. The exercise here is done at a jagged pace; you need to be extremely careful. Artemev was close to a high score but made a mistake. I liked Vladimir Artemov. He 'feels' the poles well, and this is understandable - he is the world champion on this event. However, the highest class was shown by Minsk resident Yuri Balabanov - 9.7. He took a risk, achieving maximum amplitude, and the risk was justified."
All-Union category judge Vladimir Shamenko is working on the judging panel on the horizontal bar: "In the first shift, gymnasts from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and the team of 'individual athletes' performed. So, we sadly joked that we were assessing the skills not of gymnasts, but probably of figure skaters. 5.2, 5.4, 6.0 - these were the scores we had to give. But for figure skaters 6.0 is a triumph, and for gymnasts 6.0 - 7.5 is a complete fiasco. World champion Artur Akopyan from Yerevan did well on five events, but on the high bar he failed (7.8). Artemov (9.5) and Balabanov (9.4) performed well. But, you understand, this is far from an ideal performance."
International-ranked judge Viktor Golubev: "On floor, only Artemov and Balabanov distinguished themselves - 9.6 each. Other gymnasts still need to work hard on the purity of these elements."
I can only join these critical statements, but also add that there is confidence that the shortcomings will be corrected. Our leaders have proven this more than once. I would also like to praise two participants - Olympic champion 25-year-old Bogdan Makuts from Lvov and 19-year-old Karkhov resident Oleg Kapetov. Both showed good preparation and share third place so far.
On April 20, gymnasts and coaches took part in a communist subbotnik. They went out with rakes and shovels to clean the grounds of the stadium and the Sports Palace. We worked together happily. And then we went to watch the girls' performances in the optional program. In the evening, the winners in the team competition were determined.
TECHNICAL RESULTS
51st USSR gymnastics championship. Alma-Ata.
Men. Compulsory program. 1. V. Artemov (RSFSR) - 57.0; 2. Yu. Balabanov (BLR) - 56.65; 3. B. Makuts (UKR) and O. Kapetov (UKR) - 55.55; 5. S. Gusev (RSFSR) and A. Tumilovich (BLR) - 55.45.
Team standings. 1. Belarus - 278.55; 2. Ukraine - 276.35; 3. RSFSR - 275.15.
V. GOLUBEV