Viktoriia Listunova came into the all-around final in the second place behind her teammate Angelina Melnikova. Both Listunova and Melnikova fell on beam in the qualification round. Today, the new senior was able to handle her nerves and did all events confidently and without major mistakes, while Melnikova fell on both bars and beam. Listunova finished the day with 56.731, Melnikova won silver with 55.432, and another new senior Jessica Gadirova won bronze with 55.100. Listunova told MatchTV that she is already thinking about improving her performance in the all-around for future competitions.
Q: I’m looking at your Instagram. Quite a lot of time has passed since the medal ceremony, but there are still no stories or photos with the medal. Do you not have the energy or the time?
A: There’s no internet here right now, so I can’t upload it. As soon as I get back to my hotel room, I’ll post everything and read all the congratulatory messages and thank everyone.
Q: Even your phone is silent. I guess no one was able to get through?
A: The got through but the internet isn’t very good, so I wasn’t able to reply right away.
Q: Talking about today, I’m thinking about your words after the qualification: “I was nervous”. Was it the same today or a bit easier?
A: It was a bit easier today because it’s a familiar environment already but I was still nervous.
Q: Did the rest day between the qualification and the all-around final make it easier to compete today compared to the situation when the qualification and the final are two days in a row?
A: Yes, it was a bit easier, although I try not to pay much attention to it.
Q: In the qualification, Melnikova had an issue on bars that were raised for the Irish gymnast. Your last Instagram post has a caption “The apparatuses seem fine, I liked them”. Is it still true or there were issues?
A: For Angelina and me there was a surprise today when we realized that the bars became softer than usual. They were harder during the podium training and the qualification and we prefer hard bars. But today they suddenly turned out to be softer. When this happens, you realize that you need to do everything differently because if you don’t adapt to the bars, nothing good will come out of it, there will be a disconnect.
Q: Were the bars softer already during the warm-up today or the settings changed only before the final?
A: Yes, during the warm-up. I got surprised when I did my first element and realized everything was different. I tried to remember what I was feeling in the warm-up. Of course, I asked the coach to make the bars harder for the final, they did it but in the end the bars were still softer. I got surprised again, I was in a handstand thinking: “Wellll, ok, so be it, I’ll work on these bars”. In the end, I sort of did my routine but there were still mistakes. I made my “favorite” mistake when I didn’t get into the handstand on one of the transitions.
Q: Why does it happen?
A: On one hand, there’s the fear – you are afraid of going over. On the other hand, you’re on a roll, you have lots of energy, and sometimes you can’t handle your emotions. All in all, it’s hard to find balance.
Q: The turning point in the all-around came after Angelina Melnikova fell off the beam, a few minutes before your routine on that event. What were you thinking?
A: Of course, I was shaking because I was sixth on beam and that made me nervous. But it was easier in the sense that the rotation wasn’t over yet and other gymnasts were doing their routines on other events. Sometimes, you end up competing completely alone and the whole arena is watching you, this is harder.
Q: So you managed to stay in the shadows and do your job calmly?
A: Yes, I tried to do what we worked on in training.
Q: Floor was the last event. Did it lower the anxiety level since, at least, there’s nowhere to fall off the floor?
A: On one hand, yes, but on another hand, no. You have to work till the end in the all-around and not relax, you have to do everything in order to have the gold for sure. But, of course, I made a mistake on floor because I was afraid to go out of bounds like in the qualification. In the end, it was the opposite – I under-rotated it, I wanted to stick the dismount but wasn’t able to.
Q: Vika, you had your first senior nationals this year and won and now this is your first senior Euros and you won again. What are you going to do next?
A: The Euros will be over and I will need to keep working, it will be in the past. I will need to polish the routines, upgrade the difficulty, think of other things because at this competition, I haven’t shown my whole difficulty that the coaches and I wanted. I will just keep working. Especially since I wasn’t able to do everything I planned here.
Q: Will you sleep well after today?
A: Of course, there will be no problems.
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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