World University Games : A Sweep for Soviet Gymnast

Elena Chouchounova swept all four gold medals in women’s gymnastics Sunday night and gave the Soviet Union a leading total of 15 victories in the World University Games.

The 18-year-old Chouchounova has accounted for six of these gold medals, including one in the all-around individual standings and one for the team competition on Friday.

The jury did not reward the Soviet star as they had done in the all-around event, with three perfect 10s in her four appearances. She was a shade under her earlier performance, but her show clearly outclassed the other competitors.

She won the vault with a combined total of 19.832 points, the beam with 19.938, the uneven bars with 19.925 and the floor exercise with 19.988.

The gymnastics totals gave the Soviet team a margin of four golds over surprising Romania, which has collected 11, mostly from swimming, kayak and canoeing.

The United States was far behind at five. Hungary had four.

So far, 55 out of 138 events have been completed in the Games. The track and field events begin today.

In the last final on Sunday, the Italian women beat China, 8-6, for a gold in the team foil. The Soviet Union beat West Germany for the bronze.

In the afternoon, Noemi Lung of Romania won her fourth gold medal as she continued to dominate the swimming events.

The 18-year-old Romanian won the women’s 200-meter freestyle in 2:00.89 as the American squad failed once again to win an individual gold.

Meanwhile, Troy Lewis of Purdue University sank two free throws in the final second as the United States posted a dramatic 83-82 victory over Spain in the men’s basketball quarterfinals.

The poor showing by the Americans in the swimming events on Sunday dealt another setback to the shaky prestige of the U.S. team. Only the men’s 400-meter freestyle relay managed to collect a gold, winning in 3:23.56, edging Holland by six-hundredths of a second.

In 22 swimming finals here, the Americans have won four golds--just one of them from an individual event.

Besides Lung, the other swimming gold medals on Sunday went to Robert Woodhouse of Australia in the men’s 400-meter individual medley in 4:22.90, Aneta Patrascoiu of Romania in the women’s 200-meter backstroke 2:13.06, and Ingrid Lempereur of Belgium in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke in 2:31.09.

Terry Kent of Rochester, N.Y., broke a stranglehold by the Eastern Europeans on the kayak and canoeing gold medals by winning the men’s K-1 500-meter title in 1:44.40.

The United States had a good day with both volleyball teams.