European Championhips 2018: IT'S A GOLD MEDAL

Bad qualification might always be a sign of good things to come with Russia and good things came. I watched the team final during my last two hours with the hotel wifi in Cyprus and there couldn't have been a happier ending to my vacation. A gold medal for Russia! And not only a gold medal, but a major team final where Russia hit 12 routines. When was the last time this happened? It's probably better to not check. France didn't exactly falter under the pressure, but their few bigger mistakes together with Russia's incredible hit streak made sure that Russia won by a landfall. The Netherlands was third after a fight with Great Britain. I know the field at Europeans this year is very weak after pretty much every country has had their fill with injuries, but it was an exciting final where everyone genuinely fought for their medals and I really enjoyed watching it.

Angelina Simakova was the first gymnast to compete for Russia and just barely got around her Rudi on vault. I don't think I've ever seen her that nervous, she looked terrified. And I still think she's losing the Rudi. Hopefully she'll be able to get it back. Lilia Akhaimova's Rudi was a tiny bit better, and Angelina Melnikova's vault was fine, not one of her bests. It wasn't the best rotation for them, but there were no big mistakes, so it was a good start. And after France hit all of their vaults, Russia was still a bit ahead of them. They were going to need every few tenths for beam.

I don't think we saw Irina Alekseeva on bars, but she hit and so did Melka. Melka's routine looked pretty slow and careful to me, but better that than sloppy. Ulyana Perebinosova was last and it was up to her to either hit or surrender the gold to France. I was not too optimistic about her with so much at stake, but she hit again. Her handstands were again pretty dreadful, but we're used to it by now. She had one routine in this final and she did her job well, I'm proud. France hit all of their routines too, but Russia's lead was growing. It didn't matter though, because beam was next and they could have lost their lead in a few seconds there.

Russia was up before France on beam, like they were on every apparatus and I think this worked for them. They just had to worry about themselves instead of having the pressure to live up to France's hit routines. Ira was up first and while she was nervous and hesitant, she had no major wobbles and I think everybody got a confidence boost after that. Ira took some pressure off of Sima and she looked considerably more calm. She had some very minor issues, but corrected herself calmly and her only bigger wobble was on a side somi. Melka finished with a shaky routine, but stayed on. Her rings were probably worst than ever, it's like the more pressure she is under, the worse they get. Which actually makes a lot of sense with the head throwing probably being the scariest part. I actually thought that France would start to crumble at this point because the gold medal was clearly starting to favor Russia, but I underestimated them, they did well. They hit one solid routine and one really good routine, until Marine Boyer made the first big mistake in the top group and fell. Russia's lead just grew and France would have needed a big meltdown from Russia on floor.

The meltdown didn't happen, instead, Russia was smart and downgraded. Sima hit cleanly as usual without the triple twist, and Lilia only had a minor stumble after they took out her Dos Santos. Melka still did her layout full in (with an excellent landing), but didn't throw her hardest tumbling and hit a good routine. France really couldn't win anymore at this point, but they ended a good fight unfortunately with one more fall.

So Russia is a repeat European Champion after 2016. Gelya was the youngest member of that team, and now she was the team captain and only member of that team competing. I still don't think this team is quite ready for Worlds yet, but we're maybe getting there. The timing of this year's Euros is so unfortunate, the gymnasts don't really have any time to rest before the Worlds preparations.

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Links:

Full results are HERE.

More pictures HERE.

Watch the competition HERE.