The three-time world champion last claimed the title back in Baku during 2014, however she did win European Games gold in Azerbaijan’s capital city last year.

Kudryavtseva was expected to face serious competition from her team-mate Margarita Mamun, but her rival for the gold made a mistake by dropping her hoop during one of her performances.

It helped Kudryavtseva to take full control of the event, with the 18-year-old ultimately triumphing at the Toto Arena by achieving a score of 76.082.

Mamun was able to claim the silver medal, in the 20 athlete competition, behind her compatriot by scoring 75.632.

The podium was completed by Ukraine’s Ganna Rizatdinova after she scored 75.299, with Belarus’ Melitina Staniouta missing out on the medals on 73.715.

Russia were pushed close by Belarus in the junior team competition but eventually emerged as the winners having scored 101.031 points.

A total of 100.373 proved enough for Belarus to win the silver medal, with Italy earning bronze with 98.983.

Polina Shmatko was the dominant gymnast in the individual junior events, after she topped the standings in qualifying for the ball final by scoring 16.983.

She then backed up that display by advancing to tomorrow’s clubs final as the favourite having scored 17.066, with her nearest rival Alexandra Agiurgiuclese of Italy achieving 16.750.