Victories in six out of the seven sports contested saw England's young athletes finish with a total of 77 medals, including 37 golds, to move ahead of Australia, who had led for the first two of the three days of events.

England have thus returned to the spot they occupied after the first CYG, in 2000 in Edinburgh.

At the 2004 Games in Bendigo, Australia they finished one place behind the hosts, and the CYG in Pune four years later saw them end up third in the medals table behind Australia and India.

English dominance was already assured by the time Ben Ryan's rugby sevens squad added the final victorious flourish to the day with a 41-20 victory in the floodlit grand final against South Africa as England had already added five golds from boxing and gymnastics, six from athletics, and one each from swimming and cycling to the overnight total.

England's boxers gave their team an unassailable lead as they won five of the six finals they contested at the Villa Marina on Douglas seafront.

Five wins was what team leader Martin Webb had predicted and five were delivered, which meant Webb had to live up to his promise to wear a much-hated baseball cap.

"I really couldn't ask for any more," Webb said.

"I'm so proud.

"We've played a big part in getting England over the line as top nation tonight and that's great.

"We are the top boxing nation by a mile.

"All seven boxers won medals here, we have five golds, one silver and one bronze.

"With 20 wins from 22 bouts, it's been a near perfect tournament."

In some ways, the task was toughest for young Jack Bateson, the 17-year-old light flyweight, and self-declared "baby of the bunch", who had to box first.

Fighting India's Rahul Poona, the sports student from Leeds knew he had to get the session off to a winning start.

"I did feel a bit of pressure," he said after winning comfortably.

"But I was confident.

"I just wanted to get in and get it done.

"I didn't feel I boxed my best but my body aches from the tournament so I just boxed cleverly.

"I didn't want to get into a fight."

Bateson was followed by flyweight Samson Sykes who felt he boxed "perfect" to overcome the talented Australian Jackson Woods before bantamweight boxer Qais Ashfaq destroyed Canadian Jessy Brown with a bravura display of skill.

Lightweight Henry Thomas had a third tough fight in three bouts but the Darlington boxer summoned the energy to come back from one point down before the final round to win by one at the end.

That was four from four, but dreams of the clean sweep went when a brave effort from light welterweight Darren Tetley was not quite good enough in a bruising battle against Australia's Daniel Lewis.

Tetley, from Bradford's Platinum boxing academy, fought himself to a standstill and lost by just three points.

Damon Jones then rounded things off with a measured five-point win in his welterweight fight against Scotland's Kieran Smith.

Earlier in the day, England's women gymnasts won three of the four competitions on individual apparatus, while all three of England's male gymnasts added to their medal tallies as Dominick Cunningham took his third gold of the Games.

Rebecca Tunney took the vault title and Charlie Fellows the uneven bars, while all-around bronze medallist Abi Caig won gold on the floor after earlier finishing third in the vault.

Tunney was third on the floor, and Fellows also picked up a bronze medal on the beam as Emma Nedov claimed Australia's one victory of the day.

For Tunney, victory made up for missing out in yesterday's all around competition.

"I knew I had to come back and prove myself today so I'm very pleased," said the Manchester gymnast.

"I thought the bars would be my best chance of a gold but I made a mistake so it was great that I managed to win the vault."

Medals for the bars were presented by Beth Tweddle, a world champion on the bars and former CYG champion, who trains at the same City of Liverpool club as Tunney and Caig.

"It's really nice to be here as I did the Games in Bendigo in 2004," said Tweddle.

"It was a great help to me in my career and so it's nice to see Rebecca and Abi getting the same experience.

"Australia would normally beat us so it's great to see England on top of the podium.

"It bodes well as it shows we're doing the right things at junior level and hopefully we can carry that on through to the seniors."

Women's coach Claire Duffy agreed: "It has been an amazing opportunity for them to be part of a multisport games.

"England is now starting to step up in gymnastics and all their hard work has paid off this weekend."

After dominating the team and individual all-around competitions, Cunningham was tipped to take a bagful of precious metal home today and the Birmingham gymnast ended with one of each colour from his five finals, while Jay Thompson led an England one-two in the parallel bars ahead of Brinn Bevan.

Thompson also won silver on the pommel, while Bevan took silver on the floor behind Australia's Declan Stacey.

Thompson grabbed his second gold of the Games, scoring a personal best on the parallel bars.

"It was my best performance ever," he said.

"I did well on the high bar too - for the third day in a row I haven't fallen off.

"My body is aching but it's been worth it."

Hannah Barnes defied the wind and rain which swept along the Douglas seafront to win the women's criterium in a sprint finish ahead of Welshwoman Elinor Barker.

It was a second individual win for the Towcester cyclist, who won the opening day's time trial.

She was followed home by Lucy Garner as the Leicestershire girl added a bronze medal to her gold from the road race yesterday.

It was also England's most successful day on the track as the country's athletes doubled their gold medal tally with victories in the women's 200 metres, 800m, 3,000m and 4x100m relay, while Callum Brown won the men's hammer with 72.19 ahead of team-mate Michael Painter.

It was Dina Asher-Smith who set them on their way in the half-lap sprint which she won in 24.30 ahead of Canada's Caroline Morin-Houde, before Emilia Gorecka won the 3,000m, making up for only claiming silver at this year's European juniors in Tallinn.

A delighted Gorecka, who wore down three strong East Africans to win by 50 metres in 9:14.08, said: "I'm over the moon.

"I didn't know what to expect today so I was completely terrified out there and I just ran scared, but confidently.

"I just had nothing to lose, I gave it my best shot with 1k to go.

"I just risked it all really and felt really good."
Katie Snowden (pictured) won the 800m after Ugandan Halima Nakaayi was disqualified for impeding, while world youth champion Louisa James threw a personal best of 58.10 to take the women's hammer.

In the penultimate event of the day, the women's 4x100m relay team, four individual gold medallists - Yasmin Miller, Asher-Smith, Jazmin Sawyers and Sophie Papps - won in 46.19.

In swimming three successful days in the pool ended in triumph for England with a superb gold medal in the women's 400m medley relay.

Given an excellent start by Phoebe Lenderyou on the opening backstroke leg, Molly Renshaw (breaststroke) and Rachel Kelly (butterfly) increased the lead to nearly two seconds before Sophie Smith held off Australia's Vanessa Puhlmann to clinch the gold.

England took two medals in badminton as Tom Wolfenden and Ryan McCarthy took silver in the men's doubles after losing to Heg Nelson and Ee Yi Teo in a close and tense final, while flag bearer Rhys Walker finished the Games in flying form, taking bronze in an all-England play-off against Wolfenden.

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