Portugal's Rita Ferreira and Ana Teixeira won gold in the women's pair combined at the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships in Baku ©Getty Images

Rita Ferreira and Ana Teixeira, who made history last year by capturing Portugal’s first gold at the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships, earned a second title in the women’s pair category in Baku on a day when Belgium won two titles.

The Portuguese duo, who made their initial breakthrough in the postponed 2020 edition in Geneva, scored a total of 28.780 points to win the women’s pair combined final title in the National Gymnastics Arena.

Tomorrow they will contest the women’s pair balance final, and on the concluding day of Sunday (March 13) they will seek further success in the women’s pair dynamic final.

Ferreira and Teixeira topped the scoring in each of the three categories in the combined final, recording 2.360 for difficulty, 8.750 for artistic effect and 17.400 for execution.

Hungary’s Dorina Bernath and Noemi Stattner were second with a score of 26.950 and Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Rudakova and Damira Talgat completed the podium with 26.790.

In an edition missing sanctioned Russian competitors - who have topped the medals table on all but four occasions since these Championships began in 1974 - gymnasts are competing for gold, silver, and bronze in five categories - men’s pair, women’s pair, mixed pair, women’s group, and men’s group.

Three world titles are being awarded in each category, one for each style of exercise - balance, dynamic, and combined.

A team title is also at stake.

The United States pairing of Katherine Borcherding and Cierra McKown narrowly missed out on a women’s pairs combined medal with a score of 26.370.

But the United States had medal glory in the men’s pair combined, where Braiden McDougall and Angel Felix earned gold with 28.400 points in front of the Kazakhstan duo of Vadim Shulyar and Daniyel Dil, on 28.330, and Daniel Abbasov and Murad Rafiyev of Azerbaijan on 28.270.

Belgium took its turn on the top of the podium in the women’s group combined final, where Lise de Meyst, Kim Bergmans and Bo Hollebosch scored 29.820 to finish in front of Portugal and the United States, who reached 28.780 and 28.140 respectively.

Further Belgium success occurred in the mixed pairs combined final, where Bram Roettger and Helena Heijens earned gold with 29.110 ahead of Britain’s Natasha Hutchinson and Dylan Howells on 29.030 and Germany’s Daniel Blintsov and Pia Schuetze on 28.890.

The last gold of the night went to Britain in the men’s group combined final, where Archie Goonesekera, Andrew Morris-Hunt, Finlay Gray and Bradley Gold topped the standings with 29.410.

Silver went to Belgium on 29.160, and bronze to Israel, who scored 28.430.