The Hour Has Struck!
Sept. 13, 1987. On the eve of major events, everyone is asking each other who will win, who will be the prize winners? It was a kind of lottery, but most experts predicted that Elena Shushunova would be the winner, remembering her recent outstanding performance at the Universiade in Zagreb where she won all the gold medals. But who would finish behind her? Only the Moscow coach, Nadezhda Maslennikova, "predicted" not only the top 3, but the top 4 leaders of the Cup.
Just think - Lena Shushunova was awarded the exquisite vase for the fourth time! She is a wizard of stability. True, she has made errors at the European Championships, and some people had begun to talk about the decline of our bright star. But only 2 months later, Lena stole the show at the Universiade. Leningrad coaches Viktor Gavrichenkov and Tamara Yatchenko skillfully brought a "new" student to a no less important tournament. However, Shushunova herself (an 18-year-old student at the Leningrad Institute of Physical Culture) believes that she can improve the performance of her compulsory exercises at the world championships, pay more attention to dismounts, and strengthen her optional routines. "In general," said Elena, "I love to compete. I'm not tired of gymnastics, I want to compete at the Olympics."
Her best friend is Oksana Omelyanchik. Their friendship is touching and sincere. They competed on different teams, but between rotations and routines they hurried to each other: how are things, what was your score? Lena later told us that she would be happy if Oksana won, because both of them want very much to compete at the world championships together. Apparently, their wish will be fulfilled, because Omelyanchik proved to be excellent, and after a series of setbacks she regained her composure and didn't make any serious errors. And how rapidly the audience took to her routine "Russian Ballet," directed by choreographer Galina Melyankova! This was an awesome exercie, where the absolute world champion opened up like a morning rose, mesmerized everyone with her subtle lyricism, virtuosity, and graceful choreography. Coach Tatiana Perskaya, usually restrained in her praise and emotions, this time smiled and said, "We are satisfied, satisfied."
As they experience, our coaches, for their girls, they guess to suffer - will they perform well or make a mistake? Here Rima Alexandrova, a coach from Voronezh, turned away from the platform when her students (world champion Vera Kolesnikova and 10th grader Tatiana Tuzhikova) were performing. Everyone wants to ease the complexity of the routines, but it's often a mistake to do so. "She is so soft, so mild," Rima said, that I said to her, 'Tanechka, you need to show on the platform that your time has come.'"
Experts of gymnastics were certainly interested in who would claim a place on the world championship team, since it differed from other tournaments. Olga Strazheva of Zaporozhie hurt her leg in training and was asked not to compete, but she didn't agree and tried very hard - but her injury made itself felt. Muscovite Aleftina Pryakhina, silver medalist at the European championships, was in 7th. Something was wrong, as she did not compete like her usual self, just like another Muscovite, Elena Shevchenko (8th place).
Svetlana Baitova cried quietly. She had been in the lead the entire time, even ahead of Shushunova, but fell from the uneven bars and didn't win the top prize. But she shouldn't be unhappy: she turned 15 years old on September 3, and perhaps one of her birthday gifts is that the will participate in the world championships!
Technical Results
32nd USSR Cup of Sportive Gymnastics, 11 September
Women's AA: 1. E. Shushunova, 78.525; 2. E. Gurova (both Army Club), 77.95; 3. O. Omelyanchik, 77.925; 4. S. Baitova 77.875; 5. T. Tuzhikova (all Profsoyuz), 77.7; 6. S. Boginskaya (Labor Reserves), 77.675.
Team: 1. Army Club, 2. Profsoyuz-1, 3. Profsoyuz-II .