Two-time Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Svetlana Khorkina on Instagram explained why Russian Angelina Melnikova was left without a gold medal in floor exercise at the World Championships (World Cup) in Kitakyushu.
Khorkina said that she tried to figure out what had happened, so she talked with the judges after the competition. “The supreme judicial body reviewed Angelina’s performance, she was not counted one of the turns, so points were removed from her,” she said. According to the judges, the element was not executed as it should, therefore, the difficulty of the turn was reduced.
On October 24, Valentina Rodionenko, the senior coach of the Russian national artistic gymnastics team, criticized the refereeing at the World Championships. Rodionenko stated that the judges did not count Melnikova as one of the completed elements and dismissed the protest filed in this regard. In her opinion, the arbitrators deprived the Russian woman of gold.
Melnikova won silver in floor exercise at the World Cup. The winner was the Japanese Mai Murakami. At the same time, the judges initially put her in second place, but the Japanese national team filed a protest, as a result of which Murakami received 0.1 points.
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