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1970 Canada

1970: Canada’s World Invitational Gymnastics Tournament

Just weeks after the 1970 World Championships concluded, there was a rematch between the Japanese and Soviet men’s teams in Canada. The Soviet Union sent some of its stalwarts, including Voronin and Lisitsky, while Japan sent gymnasts who did not compete at the 1970 World Championships. The competition was close, but once again, Japan managed to eke out a win.

On the women’s side, the Soviet Union sent its stars: Tourischeva, Voronina, and Petrik. None of the other countries even came close to defeating those three.

Let’s take a look at what happened…

The Gymnasts

Canada

Women

  • Diachun
  • McDonnell
  • Arsenault

Men

  • Mackie
  • Mitruk
  • Simard

France

Women

  • Desanti
  • Challe
  • Tessier

Men

  • Deuza
  • Farjat
  • Guiffroy

Japan

Women

  • Shinano
  • Komiya
  • Hirashima

Men

  • Ueda
  • Miki
  • Okamura

Soviet Union

Women

  • Petrik
  • Tourischeva
  • Voronina

Men

  • Bogdanov
  • Lisitsky
  • Voronin

United States

Women

  • Cleaves
  • Chase
  • Moore

Men

  • Lindner
  • Crosby
  • Culhane

Yugoslavia

Women

  • Kovač
  • Hevlka
  • Bajin

Men

  • Brodnik
  • Vratič
  • Kersnić

The Results (Partial)

Team Results

Men

  • Japan: 170.40
  • Soviet Union: 169.70
  • Yugoslavia: 164.90
  • France: 159.70
  • USA: 159.45
  • Canada: 158.35

Women

  • Soviet Union: 115.40
  • USA: 108.40
  • Japan: 108.25
  • Canada: 106.30
  • Yugoslavia: 105.20
  • France: 96.90

Individual Results

Men’s All-Around

GymnastCountryFXPHSRVTPBHBTotal
1. OkamuraJPN9.609.209.709.559.709.7557.50
2. VoroninURS9.409.509.759.459.259.7057.05
3. MikiJPN9.409.109.359.459.659.6556.80
4. BogdanovURS9.559.209.509.309.509.7056.75
5. UedaJPN9.558.759.309.259.559.7056.10
6. LisitskyURS9.259.009.609.159.309.6055.90
9. SimardCAN8.909.209.109.109.008.9554.25
14. MitrukCAN8.659.058.459.308.758.9553.15
18. MackieCAN9.107.458.908.158.608.7550.95

Women’s All-Around

GymnastCountryVTUBBBFXTotal
1. TourischevaURS9.709.909.709.7539.05
2. VoroninaURS9.509.609.409.7538.25
3. PetrikURS9.609.559.409.5538.10
4. MooreUSA9.059.209.209.5537.00
5. DiachunCAN9.159.109.059.2036.50
6. BijanYUG9.109.209.059.1036.45
11. McDonnellCAN8.958.658.859.1035.55
15. ArsenaultCAN8.408.408.508.9534.25
Thanks to Hardy Fink for supplying the images in this post.

Japanese Newspaper Reports

A report about the first day of competition…

Soviet Men, Women Gymnasts Leading

Winnipeg (Canada), Nov 11 — Men and women from the Soviet Union left little doubt after the first day of the six-nation World Invitational Gymnastics Tournament today that they intended to regain some of the prestige lost during last month’s world championships.

After completion of preliminaries, the Russians were leading in four of five events, with Japan holding a narrow margin in the fifth, the men’s floor exercise.

Russian women, sparked by the brilliant performance of Ljudmilla Turistcheva, dominated the uneven bars and vaulting exercises, sweeping the top three spots in each event.

Mikhail Voronin, the 25-year old Russian male champion and winner of two silver medals in the world championships, was leading the men in two of the three events completed, giving him the inside track on the overall title.

The championships, in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, were dominated by the East Germans and the Japanese, who dashed Russians hopes of becoming the world’s top gymnasts.

East Germany is not competing in Winnipeg, while Japan has an entirely different team from the one which competed in Ljubljana.

Canada, the US, France and Yugoslavia make up the other countries represented here.

Medals for the team events and the men’s and women’s all-around titles will be presented at the completion of events tomorrow afternoon with finals beginning in the evening. The top six in each event advance to the finals.

The Japanese men grabbed the lead in the floor exercise with Russia second, followed by the US, Yugoslavia, Canada and France.

In the rings competition, Russian leads Japan, Yugoslavia, the US, Canada and France in that order.

The pommel horse results have Russia first with Yugoslavia second, followed by Japan, Canada, France, and the US.

The Russian women are followed in the uneven bars by Japan, Yugoslavia, Canada, the US, and France.

November 12, 1970, The Daily Yomiuri

On the second day of competition…

Winnipeg (Canada), Nov 11 — The Japanese men performed a daring series of exercises to overtake the leading Russians and capture the men’s team and individual titles in the World Invitational Gymnastics Tournament today.

The Japanese trailed the Soviet Union after completion of the first three preliminary events yesterday but beat the Russian men in all three events today to win by a margin of less than one point.

The Russian women retained the team title they won last month in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, extending their first day margin to easily capture the overall medals.

Teruichi Okamura, a 22-year-old Japanese student needed less than two minutes of the parallel bars to begin the onslaught.

The Soviet Union had wanted to regain some of the prestige lost at the World Championships in Yugoslavia last month when Japan dominated most of the men’s events. The Japanese sent a new team here to defend their world title and were successful in doing so, 170.40 to 169.70.

A maximum of 10 points are awarded to each competitor in each event with a possible 180 points for the overall team performance.

Okamura also took over the individual lead capturing top points in the parallel bars, horizontal bar, and vaulting to go ahead of Mikhail Voronin of the Soviet Union in the men’s overall competition. 

The Japanese men swept the parallel bars with Shiro Miki and Yuichi Ueda second and third. Okamura compiled 9.70 points to 9.65 for Miki and 9.55 for Ueda.

Okamura was awarded 9.75 points in horizontal bars [sic], ahead of Ueda, Veronin [sic] and Georgiy Bogdanov of Russia, all with 9.70. Okamura’s vault gave him 9.55 points with 9.45 for both Veronin and Miki.

While the Russian women continued to perform with consistency, it was a strong showing by the US team that highlighted the women’s competition.

The US girls, Joan Moore, Kim Chase, and Adele Cleaves, finished second ahead of Japan. That had been their goal at the beginning of the tournament, but after two of the girls fell on the uneven bars yesterday their hopes had appeared dim.

Miss Moore finished fourth in both the floor exercise and beam, behind the powerful Russian girls who swept the top three spots.

Ljudmila Turisheva, the reigning overall individual world champion held the lead after the preliminaries. The 18-year old teamed with Larisa Petrik and Zinaida Voronina to turn the tournament into [a] Soviet Union competition.

Jennifer Diachun of Canada was tied for [the] sixth spot in the beam with [Nataša Bajin-Šljepica] of Yugoslavia but the Canadian girl was rated fifth overall. Miss Diachun was eighth in the floor exercise.

The Daily Yomiuri, November 13, 1970

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