In May of 1973, many of China’s top gymnasts traveled to the United States for a tour and a competition at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Meanwhile, back in China, the country held its national championships. On the men’s side, Yu Liefeng won the all-around, and Xu Guoning and Cheng Chunxia tied for first place on the women’s side.
Below, you can find an article on the competition.
Yu Liefeng (right) took a photo with coach Song Ziyu after winning third place on pommel horse at the 1962 World Championships
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The 1973 National Gymnastics Competition Concluded
Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin, May 22, 1973, by wire – The 1973 National Gymnastics Competition, which lasted for ten days, concluded in Tianjin on the 21st. The Shanghai men’s team and the Liaoning women’s team won first place in the overall score of the men’s and women’s teams, respectively. Yu Liefeng of Shanghai won first place in the men’s individual all-around, and Xu Guoning of Shanghai and Cheng Chunxia of Liaoning tied for first place in the women’s individual all-around.
Most of the participants in this competition are novices who have just emerged in recent years. They are full of vitality, vigorous, aggressive enough, and dare to climb the peak of gymnastics. The Hunan women’s team, whose average age is only fourteen years old, attracted the attention of people due to their excellent achievement of winning first place overall in the junior girls’ team competition when they participated in the national competition in Nanning last year. This year, they participated in the national competition with adults and won second place in the team competition with their calmness, boldness, and courage to complete some difficult moves. Many young players who participated in the national competition for the first time usually trained hard and set strict requirements for themselves. They keep no arrogance in victory, no despair in defeat, and fully exert their own level. Du Xiaojie, a thirteen-year-old young member of the Liaoning team, participated in the national competition for the first time this year. At the beginning, owing to the lack of composure in the team competition, she failed on the uneven bars. She was not discouraged and insisted on doing it. Later, in the individual finals, she was even more brave and tenacious, calm, and decisive, and achieved second place in women’s floor exercise and third place on balance beam.
In the competition, athletes across the country firmly implement the guideline of “friendship first, competition second,” learn from each other, help each other, and work together to improve the technical level of gymnastics in our country. Wang Lijun of the Shanghai team and Sun Fei of the Jilin team struck up a friendship as early as 1971 during a gymnastics competition held in Hangzhou, exchanged experiences, and encouraged each other in correspondence. In this competition, they met again, and often talk and help each other, learn from each other, and both achieved better results. In the competition, many athletes rejoiced in the excellent achievements created by their comrades; and made things more convenient for others in pre-competition training. The Guangxi women’s team and the Jiangxi women’s team compete in one group. Guangxi team members saw that Jiangxi team members were younger and had less competition experience, they would rather practice less themselves than let their comrades practice more in the five minutes of pre-competition practice. The athletes have been praised by the people for this style of play.
The representative teams that won second to sixth place in the overall score of the men’s and women’s teams were:
Men’s team – Hebei team, Yunnan team, Shandong team, Guangdong team, (missing sixth place).
Women’s team – Hunan team, Guangdong team, Shanghai team, Zhejiang team, Hebei team.
The candidates who won second to sixth place in the men’s individual all-around score were: Shi Mao (Hebei), Zhang Jianhua (Shanghai), Zhao Jiawei (Jiangsu), Zhou Guisheng (Jiangsu), Fan Yanneng (Shanghai).
Among the top six candidates who won the overall score of the women’s individual all-around, apart from two ties for first place, Mo Ruirong (Yunnan) and Tang Jiyuan (Hunan) tied for third place, and Sun Dejun (Liaoning) finished in fifth place, Sun Fei (Jilin) and Wang Guinian (Jiangsu) tied for sixth.
The first-place winners of the men’s six individual events were: Floor exercise – Liu Tailai (Hebei), Pommel horse – Tian Weishun (Beijing), and Rings – Xu Yuting (Shanghai), Vault – Li Ziying (Hebei), Parallel bars – Yu Liefeng (Shanghai), Horizontal bar – Liu Tailai (Hebei).
The first-place winners of the women’s four individual events were: Floor exercise – Tan Ke (Hunan), Uneven bars – Mo Ruirong (Yunnan), Balance beam – Tang Ji Yuan (Hunan), Vault – Cai Weihui (Sichuan).
Jiefangjun Bao (PLA Daily), May 23, 1973
一九七三年全国体操比赛结束
新华社天津一九七三年五月二十二日电 历时十天的一九七三年全国体操比赛，二十一日在天津结束。上海男队和辽宁女队分别获得男、女团体总分第一名，上海的于烈峰获得男子个人全能总分第一名，上海的许国宁和辽宁的程春霞并列女子个人全能总分第一名。
参加这次比赛的大多是近几年刚涌现出的新手。他们生龙活虎，朝气蓬勃，敢闯敢干，敢于攀登体操运动的技术高峰。平均年龄只有十四岁的湖南女队，去年在南宁参加全国比赛时，曾以少年女子团体总分第一名的优异成绩，引起了人们的注目。今年，她们和成年人在一起参加全国比赛，由于沉着、大胆，敢于完成一些高难动作，获得了团体总分第二名。许多第一次参加全国比赛的小将，平时刻苦训练，严格要求，比赛中胜不骄，败不馁，充分发挥了自己的水平。辽宁队十三岁的小选手杜小杰，今年第一次参加全国比赛。开始在团体赛中因为不够沉着，做高低杠的动作时失败了。她没有泄气，坚持继续做。后来，在单项决赛中，她更是勇敢顽强，冷静果断，结果取得了女子自由体操第二名和平衡木第三名。
各地运动员在比赛中坚决贯彻“友谊第一，比赛第二”的方针，互相学习，互相帮助，为提高我国体操运动的技术水平而共同努力。上海队的王丽君和吉林队的孙飞，早在一九七一年于杭州举行的体操比赛时就结下了友谊，在通信中不断交流经验，互相勉励。这次比赛，她们又碰到了一起，经常促膝谈心，互帮互学，两个人都取得了较好的成绩。在比赛场上，许多运动员为战友创造的优异成绩而欢欣鼓舞；赛前训练时，又处处把方便让给别人。广西女队和江西女队在一个组里比赛。广西队员看到江西队员年龄小，比赛经验少，在赛前五分钟练习中，宁可自己少练一会儿，也要让战友多练练。运动员们的这种风格，受到人们的赞扬。
获得男、女团体总分第二到第六名的代表队是：
男子组――河北队、云南队、山东队、广东队、（缺第六名）。
女子组――湖南队、广东队、上海队、浙江队、河北队。
获得男子个人全能总分第二到第六名的选手是：石茂（河北）、张建华（上海）、赵嘉伟（江苏）、周圭圣（江苏）、范严能（上海）。
获得女子个人全能总分前六名的选手，除两个并列第一名外，莫瑞蓉（云南）和汤季元（湖南）并列第三名，孙德君（辽宁）第五名，孙飞（杏林）和汪桂年（江苏）并列第六名。
获得男子六个单项第一名的选手是：自由体操――刘泰来（河北）、鞍马――田维顺（北京）、吊环――徐雨亭（上海）、跳马――李子英（河北）、双杠――于烈峰（上海）、单杠――刘泰来（河北）。
获得女子四个单项第一名的选手是：自由体操――谭可（湖南）、高低杠――莫瑞蓉（云南）、平衡木――汤季元（湖南）、跳马――蔡维惠（四川）。
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