Jessica Gadirova bests Angelina Melnikova, Vanessa Ferrari for 2021 Euros Floor Gold (D and E Score)

Newcomer Jennifer Gadirova (GBR) managed to surpass veterans Angelina Melnikova (RUS) and Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) to take the gold medal in Women’s Floor Exercise at the 2021 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Basel, Switzerland! The competition between the three was tight, and it was ultimately Gadirova’s clean execution that put her 0.066 ahead of Melnikova’s difficult routine. In this video, see how all three gymnasts received their difficulty scores (D-scores) and execution scores (E-scores). Which routine was your favorite?

Jessica Gadirova was a huge standout of these championships for me — we all knew Jennifer Gadirova, her twin, from the 2020 American Cup, but Jessica really proved herself a big factor here. Honestly, it makes me worry a bit for Team GB’s Olympic team in Tokyo 2020/2021 — they’ll have to choose between both Downie sisters, both Gadirova twins, Amelie Morgan, and many others who are all capable athletes. I would hate to see a pair of siblings get split apart ://.

Angelina Melnikova was the top performing athlete medal wise at these European Championships (silver AA, bronze VT, gold UB, silver FX), and it was great to see her shine in the event finals after her unfortunate falls during the all-around competition.

I loved Vanessa Ferrari’s floor routine — the “Bella Ciao” music is beautiful and powerful at the same time. Her resilience and endurance over all of these years is super impressive, and it’s awesome to see her still throwing a Silivas at her age! Hopefully Vanessa can clean up her execution prior to the Tokyo Olympics. Ff she does, she’ll be one of many in the hunt for an elusive floor medal on the biggest stage of all.

Notes:
- Vanessa Ferrari’s last tumbling pass — her Front Full (C) — is actually element number 9 of counting ones, so it didn’t increase her score for that reason. She still needs it for forward acro credit, which is a requirement, but I believe she could’ve just done any forwards tumbling pass there and her D score wouldn’t’ve been affected.
- Many people have likened Gadirova’s Silivas (H) to a Moors (I)/double double layout; I assumed she attempted a Silivas and gave it to her, not considering body shape deductions for a layout salto, which would’ve been rough.
- Initially, I downgraded Gadirova’s Gogean (D) to a Split 1/1 (C), but her score reflects that the judges gave it to her, so I did too. Vanessa’s score reflects a downgrade.
- I didn’t factor in artistic deductions heavily here — I imagine that Gadirova especially may have lost up to 0.2, for similar corner choreography and/or lack of expressiveness. I thought that she was quite expressive, and I didn’t really consider corners, but I imagine that could’ve impacted the final results. A lot of decisions made on video are subjective — ie, it’s difficult to determine the deductions on ring leaps from certain camera angles — so I try to give the benefit of the doubt to the athlete.
- I thought that all three scores were a bit high — I could see a few more deductions on video than were given here — so I didn’t take off every deduction that I could see to match with that. I’m actually happy that the judges are being more lenient on floor exercise because it will create some parity with vault, uneven bars, and balance beam, where the scores seem to be a bit higher.

TIMESTAMPS (score here/score awarded in competition)
0:00 Vanessa Ferrari, 13.600/13.700, 3rd, "Bella Ciao"
1:44 Angelina Melnikova, 13.800/13.900, 2nd
3:30 Jessica Gadirova, 13.900/13.966, 1st, "Stereotypes" by Black Violin
5:18 Final results + Jennifer Gadirova's reaction to Jessica's win

The footage in this video does not belong to me; it qualifies as fair use (educational/informative/transformative usage). Routine footage is from Gymnastea. Instagram clip is from the Gadirova twins’ account @gadirova_twins. The clip of Jennifer is really wholesome, so I decided it would be nice to put in :).

Видео Jessica Gadirova bests Angelina Melnikova, Vanessa Ferrari for 2021 Euros Floor Gold (D and E Score) канала GymAnalysis