European Games
A whirlwind day at the European Games saw……well, like a lot of cycling, really……but apparently there was also some gymnastics in there somewhere.
Qualification is complete on both the women’s and men’s sides, with Angelina Melnikova taking the top spot in the women’s all-around. Not much of a surprise, especially because Nina Derwael elected to compete only bars and beam here, eliminating what was probably her biggest competition.
It wasn’t an ideal day for Melnikova—all of her limbs went different directions on her front tuck through to double back on floor, taking her out of the event final there (sweetums…)—but she did enough on the other pieces to place first, advancing to the vault and beam finals as well. She’ll be the favorite in the AA final.
So, yeah, Melnikova brought back the two-foot layout because she hates me and you and arteries, but she also hit it this time. Ring some bells or whatever. If she hits that layout in the all-around final and the event final, you have to run naked through the streets.
Melnikova would have advanced to the bars final in addition to beam and vault, but she got one-per-country-ed out of the final because that’s a thing we have to deal with. One-per-country for event finals. Also only 6 people in each event final. And 18 people in the all-around final. NONE OF THESE ARE THE RULES.
Second position in all-around qualification went to Georgia-Mae Fenton, coming up only about a half point short of Melnikova. So I think that qualifies as the complete all-around performance we needed to see from her here. Despite getting one-per-ed out of the bars final by Becky Downie (grumble grumble), Fenton did manage to sneak into the beam final in a bit of a surprise and will be looking to have her Kinsella moment there, I suppose.