The 16-year-old from Moscow held her nerve in a fiercely fought final to finish with a flourish on the floor and seal victory ahead of defending champions the United States and Olympic champions China.

Mustafina, who is also the favourite to take the all-around title on Friday (October 22) after leading qualifying, competed on all four apparatus - vault, uneven bars, beam and floor - as the lead swung between her team and China to keep the capacity crowd at the Ahoy arena on the edge of their seats.

In the end less than 0.616 points separated the podium finishers with European champions Russia scoring 175.397 overall with the United States achieving 175.196 and China 174.781.

Russia had made a strong start by leading China and the United States after their first rotation, the vault, but looked to have lost the title after a disastrous second rotation on the uneven bars when both Anna Dementyeva and Tatiana Nabieva tumbled off the appartus, the latter twice.

The Chinese surged ahead on the uneven bars, despite a fall by Jiang Yuyan, to take a 1.118-point advantage over the United States into the third round with Russia in third.

A fall by Sui Lu off the beam cost China points with Russia pulling ahead of the United States, after American Mattie Larson fell on her knees during her floor routine, to trail the Chinese by just 0.150 going into the final round.

Olympic silver medallist Alica Sacramone, 22, looked to have given the US the title after her final vault, but the Russians grabbed the gold despite Mustafina stepping out at the end of her floor routine.



Russia scored highest on the vault and floor with the Chinese best on uneven bars and the United States the beam.

It is the first time Russia have taken the title, although the former Soviet Union won gold a record 11 times, with their last title coming in 1991.

Britain, including world champion Beth Tweddle, finished seventh with early costly mistakes proving a big barrier to overcome.