BAKU (Azerbaijan) — Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina won the inaugural European Games women's all-around title yesterday (June 18) and laid a marker to her rivals for Olympic gold medals next year.

Mustafina won with 58.566 points, exactly one point lower than the score which won her Olympic bronze in 2012.

“Things mostly worked out for me,” Mustafina said. “I did some things better, and did some things worse compared to qualifying, but mostly I'm satisfied with this. It wasn't bad.”

Second place went to Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland on 56.699, with bronze for Lieke Wevers of the Netherlands, who scored 55.065.

Despite not coming up against world-class opposition, Mustafina said she refused to take her foot off the pedal.

“I saw that there was a bit of a gap, that there were more than two points to second place, but anyway, you can't just relax in that kind of situation, because I wanted to finish the competition properly,” she said.

Mustafina can add to her medal haul on Saturday, when four gold medals are on offer in individual apparatus events.

In addition to her all-around bronze from the London Olympics, Mustafina also won gold in the uneven bars, silver in the team event, and another bronze on the floor. She won European Games team gold with Russia on Monday.

Ukraine's Oleg Vernyaev won the men's all-around with a 90.332 score, with silver for Azerbaijan's Oleg Stepko on 89.065, and bronze for Russian Nikita Ignatyev on 87.365. AP