Hazuki Watanabe won the women's balance beam title on Sunday at the world championships to become the youngest Japanese female artistic gymnastics world champion ever.
Making her world championships debut as a substitute, Watanabe scored 13.600 points to beat Elsabeth Black of Canada by just 0.034 points. Fellow debutant Shoko Miyata finished third with 13.533.
The 18-year-old Watanabe beat out top qualifiers Ou Yushan of China, Skye Blakely of the United States and Rebeca Andrade of Brazil after all three struggled in the final held in Liverpool, England.
Watanabe, who said her "legs were trembling during her performance" also retained the balance beam title for Japan after her countrywoman Urara Aishikawa won the event at the 2021 edition.
"Other gymnasts were falling and making big mistakes, but I was able to go through my routine okay," Watanabe said, according to the international gymnastics federation. "That was a real boost to my confidence."
Ashikawa was previously the youngest Japanese female to take a world title at 18 years and seven months before Watanabe bettered the record by around five months on Sunday.
Miyata's bronze medal gave Japan a second straight double podium after Aishikawa and Mai Murakami completed the feat in Kitaskyshu last year.
Watanabe joins an exclusive club in Japan as only the fourth woman to win a gymnastics world title.
In the men's competition, 2022 world all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto earned silver on the horizontal bar behind Brody Malone of the United States.
Hashimoto is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the apparatus, having taken the title and the all-around gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
