Birmingham World Cup 2018: My sincere thanks to Melka's spine

Angelina Melnikova competed at a World Cup event in Birmingham and finally managed to get out of the rut she's been in since the Olympics. She actually hit 4-for-4 and won. And gymternet naturally celebrated her gold medal like she just became the Olympic all around champion. She's had such a long rough patch that this feels like the biggest victory ever. Melka herself looked the happiest she's been in awhile and her reaction to her first place really reminded me of Aliya winning floor bronze at the 2014 Worlds. I'm so happy for her, she really needs the confidence boost.

1. Angelina Melnikova 2. Margzetta Frazier 3. Alice Kinsella

All that happiness aside, her performance still wasn't the best. It was a definitive improvement and more than okay for now, but there's still a lot of room for further improvement.

Vault was good, as always, maybe a tiny bit more piked than usual. But Christine Still still called it classy, so she's good.

Bars was... ugh. I still don't understand what's going on with her there. She made it out without a huge error, but kept having form breaks on every pirouette, except the first. The jaeger was a close catch too. She fought and managed to save everything, but it's not great if every skill needs saving.

Beam was okay, but the ring jumps were still bad and she broke some connections. They seem to be experimenting with her beam routine, because she had a different routine compared to the one in Stuttgart. And that makes me confused, because if they are willing to play around with the routine in general, why are they not wiling to take the layout out. Take. It. Out. What is the problem? Is it Melka, who's stubbornly saying to the coaches that "I can do it!" and they don't want to crush her confidence by taking it out against her will? Well, it crushes her confidence to constantly fall on it. Or are the coaches just idiots and think that it's a good idea to have it in her routine? All that said, she made it. A huge bobble, but she didn't fall. I still want it out. The rest of her beam was downgraded, mainly the dismount. After a wild double pike full in she was back to her amazing double pike. Her newly fixed wolf turn was out and replaced with a single L-turn, and the new front toss I liked was gone and the side somi back. 

On floor she switched the piked full in for a double layout and because she also switched the order of the passes, Christine kept saying that she watered down. But no, she actually upgraded. She upgraded her already upgraded floor routine, because that's what you do if you're a Russian with a low stamina. She barely made her second and third passes, so I'm still not sure this is a good idea, but I guess they're going with it. Maybe just switch the order of the passes (double pike full as a second pass instead of third like in Stuttgart), but don't go for a double layout? Just a thought. Besides the two bad landings and the still hideous split ring half, the routine was good. She's hitting her turns nicely. But I still haven't warmed up to the routine in general, there's just not much choreography and nothing ties it together between the gymnastic elements.

The videos on YouTube keep getting taken down for copyright, but this one with all of her routines is up for now:

Gelya gave her thanks on instagram to her spine for supporting her. Sensible.