Angelina Melnikova made four finals at the current European Championships and has already medalled in three of them – silver in the all-around, bronze on vault, and gold on bars. This is her highest finish both in the all-around and on bars and she previously won a silver on vault in 2018. Today, she will try to win a medal on floor – she was the gold medalist on the event in 2017 and won bronze in 2019. Melnikova told MatchTV that while she’s happy with her gold on bars, she wasn’t able to do her full difficulty and will try to improve in the future.
Q: Were you nervous before bars today remembering how you did it yesterday? Why did you fall yesterday?
A: The fall in the all-around was unexpected, everything was fine but a grip moved in a wrong way somehow and I ended up peeling off the bar.
Q: Force majeure?
A: Yes, it happened on both bars and beam yesterday. On beam, it was such a stupid fall. The turn on which I fell on beam is a treacherous element. You can do it perfectly but the next time, your toe will twist and you’ll fall. Falls are always upsetting, of course, but, on the other hand, it’s normal. I didn’t despair, my routines are ready, I just need not to fall and do all [that I prepared].
Q: Looking at yesterday, do you see some mistakes or it was purely force majeure?
A: I think, maybe, I didn’t have enough competitive anger. Yesterday, I thought that I was focused but now I understand that I lost focus sometimes.
Q: Saturday started with a bronze on vault, how did you react to that medal?
A: It actually gave me additional motivation because my vaults aren’t very strong, it’s an average level. And if I do them well, I might get onto the medal podium. And the fact that I ended up there gave me more motivation before bars.
Q: You’ve already experienced issues with bars settings two times – in the qualification and the all-around final. Was everything fine today?
A: Today, everything was fine. The only thing is that it’s hard to do such a complicated event as bars without a touch warm-up, there are many nuances [of competing on bars]. So, today, the difference was this – the lack of warm-up.
Q: Your difficulty on bars was 6.3, your execution – 8.2. How confidently can you keep competing with this difficulty?
A: Both Vladislava Urazova and I didn’t do the difficulty we were supposed to today. We can be criticized for that because at the World Championships level that wouldn’t work for sure. Obviously, we always try to do the full difficulty but bars are a special event, there are connections, and not everything always works out. You can make a mistake and then in a split second you need to make a decision on what to do next.
Q: What do you think of the medal design? Nikita and I have already talked about the fact that it’s more yellow than gold.
A: Yes, this is my first gold here, so I only saw it now. In my medal collection, the most beautiful medal in every way is the one from Rio, of course.
Q: You haven’t seen most of your competitors in a long time – American and Chinese gymnasts… Do you have an idea of how ready are the gymnasts before the Olympics?
A: I think the level is not very high now. Even here, many leaders didn’t come, so the level [of readiness] is likely to be average now.
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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