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Melnikova wins Massilia Cup

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Angelina taking her gold medal AA at the Junior European Championships in 2014. Picture courtesy of UEG.

Yesterday, at the Massilia Cup, Russian junior Angelina Melnikova scored 57.5 to win the all around competition ahead of France's Marine Brevet and Romania's Diana Bulimar, both established senior competitors.  This score would have seen her finish in fifth place a few weeks ago, at the World Championships in Glasgow.  The Russian team, including fellow juniors Daria Skrypnik and Natalia Kapitonova, and senior Evgenia Shelgunova, finished second behind France, after a tight battle.  See scores below.

Angelina on bars - http://youtu.be/oeVEt8UzkHo
On beam -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIMiesOKsdw&sns=tw

Natalia Kapitonova, beam - http://youtu.be/JF1xNqiv2TU

Shelgunova, beam - http://youtu.be/D4sTTo1Fs88

Skrypnik, beam - http://youtu.be/hJ8gmM0BpLo

Angelina is from Voronezh, where she trains at the same club as Viktoria Komova.  Komova's coach, Gennady Elfimov, now assists in training Angelina, alongside her coaches since childhood.  Angelina won the Junior European AA title in 2014 and scored the highest AA this autumn at Russia Cup.  Unfortunately, as a junior she was not eligible to take the title of Russia Cup champion and had to be satisfied with a special award!  She will be patient though, and wait for her opportunity to prove herself and take her laurels at next spring's Russian Championships.  'Gelya', as she is known by her friends, will turn 16 next July - so it will be great to see if she can qualify to compete in Rio.  

Here is a video of Angelina training, four years ago, at the age of ten.  

http://youtu.be/6REkTP00bWI

Let's wish Angelina and her team mates the very best of luck as they prepare to compete for places on the Russian team at the big competitions of 2016!

Our next opportunity to see the Russian gymnasts will be the Voronin Cup in Moscow, in December.  Anastasia Dmitrieva has confirmed that she is one of the gymnasts training for this competition.





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