Angelina Melnikova came into the all-around final at the European Championships as a leader but two falls in the competition put her in the second place. This is still Melnikova’s highest finish in the all-around at Euros – her previous achievement was the bronze in 2019. She wrote on Instagram about not being able to win AA gold: “Once again this medal was not possible for me to win. But everything is still ahead of me.”
In an interview to TASS, Melnikova said:
“Today’s final was very hard for me. I don’t understand why it was this way. I’m upset by what happened to me on beam and bars today. I intend to work even harder in training in order for things to be much better at future competitions. Will I be motivated for tomorrow’s finals after this second place? I think so. I’ll try to show everything I’m capable of.”
Melnikova praised teammate Viktoriia Listunova who won gold in the all-around:
“I like Viktoriia’s performance, her gymnastics. She’s very elegant. She has quite difficult routines and I hope she’ll be able to go to the Olympics.”
Listunova told TASS she believes that Melnikova just had a bad day:
“I don’t think the fact that I beat Angelina today means much. She just wasn’t able to do everything she can today.”
She has her sights set on the Olympics already:
“After my success here, I have incredible emotions. Today’s victory gives me even more motivation in order to become even better. I’ll keep training in order to achieve my goals and be as ready for the Olympics as possible.”
According to Valentina Rodionenko, Lustunova’s victory was expected:
“For us, this success of the new senior Listunova was not unexpected. We supposed that in a competition between Melnikova and Listunova the later would win. The girl is really ready and she was tested in a senior competition before the Olympics, same as Vlada Urazova. Viktoriia guaranteed a spot on the Olympics team after this performance, same as Melnikova and Urazova who also guaranteed their spots on the team.”
“Regarding Angelina’s performance, today things didn’t work out. The beam let her down; she made a mistake on bars. She was able to get herself together on these events but had a great finish on floor in the all-around and stayed in the second place. She did a good job.”
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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I’m surprised Valentina isn’t criticizing the hell out of that AA performance by Melnikova. In 2017-18 her comments would’ve been different
Probably because they still got the 1-2 finish, and Melnikova did beat Listunova in quals. Up until 2019 the Russian team was pretty weak, so V-Rod was negative about everything. Now they have Listunova and Urazova, who proved they can deliver as seniors, and Melnikova can still compete on their level, so mistakes aren’t the end of the world. V-Rod just goes wherever the wind blows.