Diamanto Evripidou starred as Cyprus won team gold ©Getty Images

Cyprus were crowned winners of the rhythmic gymnastics team event to surpass their record total of gold medals at a Commonwealth Games here today.

Competing at their 10th edition of the Games since their debut at Edmonton in 1978, Cyprus’ previous record total came at Delhi 2010 when they earned four golds medals.

They were made to wait for confirmation of their fifth here, with their rhythmic gymnastics team the only one to compete in the first subdivision in the morning before their five rivals featured in the evening.

Cyprus had set a challenging total for their rivals, with Diamanto Evripidou proving their star performer.

Evripidou scored 14.550 points in the hoop event before following the performance up with totals of 14.600 and 14.375 in the ball and clubs disciplines respectively.

She concluded her rotations by scoring 13.450 points in the ribbon, meaning she topped the individual qualification standings comfortably for the apparatus finals in the coming days.

Eleni Ellina and Viktoria Skittidi contributed to Cyprus’ success, finishing on a total of 130.625 points.

With their job done, the Cypriot team watched the evening session as Australia, defending champions Canada, England, Malaysia and Wales looked to knock them off their perch.

Malaysia offered the greatest threat as Kwan Dict Weng, Sie Yan Koi and Izzah Amzan scored consistently well throughout the competition.

Their team fell short, though, with their score of 127.950 points proving enough only for the silver medal.

Prince Edward was on hand to present the medals ©Getty Images
Prince Edward was on hand to present the medals ©Getty Images

The bronze medal was claimed by the Australian team of Enid Sung, Danielle Price and Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva.

The trio ended on a tally of 120.800 points to the delight of the home crowd.

Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, was on hand to present the medals to the teams at the end of the competition.

"We're very surprised, we didn't expect this," Evripidou, following Cyprus' fourth gymnastics medal of the Games, said. 

"It was a surprise for all of us.

"We didn't expect to come first. 

"We're proud for both of us, for rhythmic and artistic gymnastics. 

"We're just proud."

Canada were left outside of the medal places by a narrow margin, four-years on from their team claiming gold at Glasgow 2014. 

They achieved a score of 118.850 points, less than two points behind the bronze medal winning Australian team.