Angelina Melnikova talked to RIA Novosti about Euros, her newfound confidence and her plans for Worlds.
Q: You’ve been on the [senior] national team a bit more than two years. How much did you progress in that time?
A: I don’t know how I can see it… But I feel that I became more experienced in terms of competing. I know what to do in certain situations and what to do during the routines. For example, if there’s some issue, due to my experience I know how to fix the situation. That is, during all that time when I had my not so successful performances, I gained experience.
Q: If we’re taking a shorter period of time – from the last year’s Euros in Cluj-Napoca, where did you see the most progress in that year?
A: I noticeably added on floor, on bars. I didn’t do my whole difficulty on beam here but if you compare with the Russian Championships, I upgraded on beam, too. But my vaults are the same.
Q: The World Championships are ahead. What goals are you setting for yourself?
A: Personally, I want to keep competing as consistently [as I did now] because it’s really cool! It’s an awesome experience when you go out there and for the 20th time in a row you don’t fall and do your routines without serious errors. So, that’s why the goal number one is to keep the consistency.
Q: In Glasgow, there was no all-around final. But in the unofficial results, you are in the second place. How important was this result for you?
A: Comparing to last year, this result is just great for me.
Q: If we’re talking about specific events, what are you planning on upgrading for Worlds?
A: In general, I’ll be working on my bars. Actually, in training, I sometimes do a routine with a 6.3 difficulty when I connect everything but I’m not always able to do that at competitions. On beam, I changed my dismount in Glasgow because it’s not completely ready yet. On floor… I don’t know yet. Of course, I have a few more elements in my bag. It’s also difficult to say anything about vault right now.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
Gymnovosti is able to provide coverage of the European Championships thanks to the support from our patrons on Patreon.
