Son Yeon-jae won South Korea's first Universiade title in the individual all-around rhythmic gymnastics on Sunday. Son earned a combined 72.550 points in ball, hoop, clubs and ribbon in Gwangju, the host city some 330 kilometers south of Seoul. Ganna Rizatdinova of Ukraine won the silver medal with 71.750 points and Melitina Staniouta of Belarus got bronze with 70.800 points.

The 21-year-old led the competition in every apparatus. On Sunday, she started with ribbon, in which she scored 18.050 points. Next was clubs, one of her two specialties along with hoop. At this point, she was certain to finish first as long as she didn't make a huge mistake. She ended up earning her season best of 18.350 points in the apparatus.

Like Saturday, the first day of the two-day final, the venue at Kwangju Women's University Gymnasium was more packed than it had been in previous artistic gymnastics events. Son's routines were completely sold out as of Saturday, according to organizers. Every difficult move she executed was followed with roaring applause from the audience. This time, they didn't leave after her final act and instead stayed until the end for the award ceremony.

"I'm glad I put on a clean performance, which was my goal," Son said at the post-event press conference. "I'm also grateful that I got good results while doing so."

The top-seeded Son is set to compete in the final of each apparatus on Monday.

"I think I should treat the individual finals as another individual all-around final," she said. "It's going to be challenging physically, but I'll try to put on a clean performance there, too."

Son, polled as the most popular athlete in South Korea, rose to stardom following the 2012 London Olympics, in which she placed fifth in the individual all-around, the best a South Korean had ever done in the event.

She also became the first South Korean to win a Universiade medal in 2013 in Kazan, Russia. In 2014, she added another first to her name with the Asian Games title in rhythmic gymnastics. Son is currently world No. 4 after three Russians.

Critics have said she would have it easy at this Universiade, as two of her arch-rivals, Margarita Mamun and Yana Kudryavtseva, sat out the competition due to fears of MERS, a viral respiratory disease that has killed more than 30 people in South Korea since May.

Apparently aware of this criticism, Son said her primary goal at the Universiade was to put on a good show, not a gold medal.

"I actually never thought I would win the gold medal at this Universiade," she said.

"Even though Mamun and Kudryavtseva were not here, I knew I'd still be competing with some of the best rhythmic gymnasts in the world.

The gold medal is icing on the cake for me." (Yonhap)