Last year, at the 2018 European Championships, Melanie De Jesus Dos Santos was the unofficial all-around winner (because no AA title was awarded). This year, she made it official. For De Jesus Dos Santos, it was a tough battle against the reigning champion Ellie Downie and the qualification leader Angelina Melnikova, but clean consistent routines on every event allowed to her to take the lead. The true winner of our hearts is, of course, the French team who burst into tears immediately after their teammate’s victory was announced. They later said to the media that they feel like it’s a victory that belongs to all of them.
Good to know your teammates have your back!#ECSzczecin2019 pic.twitter.com/tHBaHoCIEh
— UEG (@UEGymnastics) April 12, 2019
Ellie Downie did not necessarily expect to win it as she is still coming back from her foot injury and just recently started doing full difficulty on floor, so she was very pleased with the silver medal:
“I’m really happy with silver, obviously, I was coming in as the reigning champ and there was a lot of pressure coming in
Angelina Melnikova came to the final as the leader but her beam routine took her out of contention for the gold. She was glad to finally win an all-around title but unhappy with her own performance on the day:
“I’m feeling OK but I’m not quite happy with my performance. I’m happy with the vault but the rest was not my best today. I’m really happy with my first medal in the all-around, I really wanted to medal in the all-around.”
All three medalists will continue competing in the event finals with Downie on vault, Melnikova on vault, bars and floor, and De Jesus Dos Santos on bars, beam and floor.
Photo: E. Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
The live coverage of the European Championships was made possible thanks to the support of our patrons on Patreon!
Buy cool gymnastics-themed t-shirts, hoodies, pillows, phone cases, and more at our store on Teepublic!
Melnikova is a joke