Slupina, who was an outsider for the title before the tournament started, performed admirably under pressure in the final routine of the day to narrowly beat her compatriot Viola Brand’s score of 183.29.

Despite the high hopes that surrounded her on the eve of the Championships, Adriana Mathis, from host country Austria, could only post a score of 170.10 at Hallenradsport WM in Dornbirn.

However, she still managed to take the final place on the podium.

The men's event also got underway with several of the outsiders taking to the floor in the qualification round.

Macau's Chang Wan kin managed to handle the pressure of performing towards the end of the session and posted a score of 119.51 to finish top of the leaderboard.

Tomorrow sees the favourites enter the contest with the final set to take place in the evening.

The cycle-ball events of the day focused on Group B and it was Liechtenstein, making their debut in this tournament, who won the group with highlights including 8-1 and 10-0 victories against Hungary and Malaysia respectively. 

There was also action in Group A with hosts Austria's 3-3 draw with neighbours Germany the pick of the games.

As in the men's artistic cycling, the favourites will enter the tournament tomorrow.

The headline event saw Germany's Serafin Schefold and Max Hanselmann beat favourites and compatriots André and Benedikt Bugner to win the open pair artistic cycling gold with a final score of 164.28. 

The Bugners were the last to take the floor but their score of 153.76 was only good enough to take silver.

Lukas Burri and Fabienne Hammerschmidt claimed the bronze with 145.43 points.