Shushunova produces perfect score to win gymnastics title

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 29

Shushunova produces perfect score to win gymnastics title

NZPA-Reuter Seoul . Yelena Shushunova produced the perfect score she needed to win and carried off the women’s all-round gymnastics title at the Olympics Games yesterday. The 19-year-old Soviet was pushed to the limit by the Romanian, Daniela Silivas. After Silivas’ final exercise, the horse vault, Shushunova had to collect a maximum score of 10 on the same apparatus to overhaul her rival. The stern-faced Shushunova kept her nerve and vaulted perfectly on the first of her two attempts. Then, for the first time in the competition, she broke into a broad smile. Shushunova ended with a total of 79.662 pints to secure the fourth successive gymnastics gold for the Soviet Union in Seoul. Silivas took the silver with 79.637 — losing by the smallest possible margin — and Svetlana Boginskaya, of the Soviet Union, took the bronze with 79.400. The victory maintained the Soviet monopoly of gymnastics gold, following its triumph in the men’s and women’s team events and the men’s all-round competition, where it captured all three medals. Shushunova led Silivas by five-1 OOths of a point after the preliminaries eariier this week. But Sili-

vas overhauled her on the first apparatus, the asymmetric bars, with a sparkling performance that earned her a 10 while Shushunova had scored 9.9.

The chirpy Silivas, aged 17, spent the time before the next the balance beam, practising back flips and somersaults on the floor. Shushunova sat grimly in a chair, eyes closed and concentrating hard. But she withstood the pressure of being immediately followed by Silivas on three of the four apparatus and clawed back 0.025 points by scoring 9.925 on the beam. The Romanian, a beam specialist, had a disappointing 9.9.

It was Silivas’ turn next — in the floor exercise — to feel the pressure. Shushunova won a 10 for her routine, a rapid series of back flips, somersaults and ballet steps. But Silivas rose to the occasion and was even quicker across the mat as she too earned the maximum mark.

On the deciding horse vault, Silivas — weaker on the apparatus than the Russian — was first of her group to compete. Shushunova was last.

The two performed the same vault but Shushunova’s was more polished. Needing 9.975 for a share of the gold medal, she went the

smallest fraction better for another perfect mark.

The three Soviet and three Romanian competitors shared the top six places. The Romanian, Gabriela Potorac, was fourth, the Soviet Union’s Natalia Lashchenova, fifth, and the Romanian, Aurelia Dobre, sixth. “What can I say — I’m just very happy,” Shushunova said after winning the gold. Asked how she had coped with the pressure of the crucial final vault, she replied:' “I tried to think of nothing but the exercise 1 -1 had to do.” She admitted her long experience had helped her. “I believe the experience of competition is doubtless an advantage,” Shushunova said. “But the Romanian girls have no less experience than we have.” Silivas said she had thought she could win right until her own second attempt at the horse vault. “After my last vault I thought maybe I won’t win — but only then,” she said. The Soviet judge at the vault only gave Silivas a 9.8, but the Romanian coach, Adrian Goreac, would not be drawn into outright criticism. “When athletes of this level receive only 9.8 a coach is not happy because it doesn’t express the high level of our athletes,” he said.