Russia’s gold standard was maintained, however, in the second of the day’s new acrobatics disciplines, the mixed pairs all-around final, and in the rhythmic individual all-around final, where world champion Yana Kudryavtseva gave an imperious performance to finish ahead of colleague Margarita Mamun and Melitina Staniouta of Belarus.

Belgium’s Ineke van Schoor, who finished more than a point clear of Russia with team-mates Julie van Gelder and Kaat Dumarey, was understandably thrilled at the landmark win.

“It’s great,” she said.

“Hopefully Belgium will see us as a great sport now - I mean, acrobatic gymnastics is not Olympic yet.

"This gold medal is really important for us.

“It's like artistic gymnastics - the all-around contains everything, every routine, so it's a prestigious medal.

“If you're good at everything, you really can call yourself a European Games champion.

“The other medals are just an extra."

Van Gelder explained that they had erred on the side of caution in the concluding combined exercise to maintain the 0.192 lead they held over Russia following the dynamic and balance qualifications on Wednesday (June 17).

The tactics worked as they finished with a total 86.480 points over three exercises, with Russia on 85.430 and bronze going to Belarus with 84.610.

 "We had a big lead after the first two exercises, but we were pretty nervous anyway,” van Gelder said.

“We were careful during our exercise.

“We took it slow, just focusing on the elements and we wanted to make sure that we had no big mistakes or falls today."

Russia’s Zhanna Parkhometc said: "It was hard to compete with Belgium.

"To beat them the next time, we really have to work on the artistic part of our exercises."

Kudryavtseva, rhythmic all-around world champion last year and European all-around champion the year before, clearly had the pedigree to overtake her colleague Mamun, who headed the competition after the first group had completed their hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon disciplines.

Russia claimed its second gold of the day with a barnstorming effort from Marina Chernova and Georgy Pataraya in the acrobatic mixed pair all-around final which ended Belgium’s own hopes of a golden double.

But Yana Vastavel and Solano Cassamajor maintained silver position ahead of Britain’s Hannah Baughn and Ryan Bartlett to round off a memorable day for their country.

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