After competing over eight hours, the Ukrainian gymnasts’ consistent performances in the six disciplines helped their nation notch 239.128 points to be crowned champions.

Silver went to Hungary on 232.494 while Bulgaria came third with 228.361.

As well as deciding the team champions, today's competition was also used as qualifying for the all-around and individual apparatus finals.

Illia Kovtun, who won four golds at last year’s European Youth Summer Olympic Festival, was instrumental in Ukraine’s victory after finishing as the top qualifier in the all-round, including the best performance on the parallel bars.

Krisztián Balázs of Hungary came out on top on the horizontal bar as Ukrainian duo Mykyta Melnykov and Volodymyr Kostiuk finished second and third respectively.

Kovtun starred on the parallels bars, seeing off the challenge of Balázs and Bozhidar Zlatanov of Bulgaria.

Romania had a strong day on the vault, with Gabriel Burtănete edging twin Robert for top spot while Szilárd Závory of Hungary came third.

Kostiuk topped qualifying on the rings with Kovtun coming second ahead of Gabriel Burtănete.

There was a Ukrainian one-two-three on the pommel horse with Radomyr Stelmakh taking top spot ahead of Kovtun and Melnykov.

Kostiuk also impressed on the floor as he came first followed by Gytis Chasazyrovas of Lithuania and Zlatanov.

Kovtun, Kostiuk, Gabriel Burtănete and Chasazyrovas will contest the all-around final scheduled to take place on Friday (December 11), along with Hungarians Balázs and Botond Molnar, Teodor Trifonov of Bulgaria and Turkey’s Bora Tarhan.

This will then be followed by the apparatus finals on Sunday (December 13).

The senior men’s competition is due to begin tomorrow with four gymnasts from each country competing on the different apparatus.

The three best scores will count towards the team total.

The top six teams advance to the team finals on Saturday (December 12), while the best eight gymnasts per apparatus will progress to the apparatus finals the following day.

Teams from Russia, Italy and Britain have pulled out of the event because of concerns over coronavirus.

Qualification for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, now set to take place in 2021, will not be on offer at the event.

Baku in Azerbaijan was due to stage the competition before it was moved to Mersin due to the coronavirus pandemic.