Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in world championship history on Sunday when she won the beam and floor finals in Stuttgart to take her career tally to 25 medals while Great Britain’s Joe Fraser took a stunning gold medal on the parallel bars.

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Biles arrived on the final day of competition with gold medals in the team, all-around and vault finals. For most gymnasts that would have been sufficient, but Biles had a point to prove on the balance beam. At the Rio Olympics she took bronze after losing her balance and grabbing hold of the beam, and last year she fell off the beam in the all-around final at the world championships.

No matter. This time Biles produced one of the greatest beam routines of her career, taking gold with a score of 15.066 and not a single wobble. The most remarkable part of her enduring success is that, after 25 medals, 19 of them gold, she is only getting better.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Simone Biles poses with her five gold medals from this year’s world championships – she has won 19 now across four tournaments. Photograph: Daniel Kopatsch/EPA

“It meant a lot because Cecile [Landi, beam coach] has really been working on bringing my confidence back up to where it used to be on the beam,” Biles said. “To go out there and nail the routine, just like I do in practice, it felt really good and I knew she was really proud.”

Biles finished her historic championships by winning a fifth gold medal, her highest haul, on her favoured floor exercise. She beamed as she easily landed her triple-double and again as her score read 15.133, a lead of a full point ahead of her compatriot Sunisa Lee.

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As Biles celebrated her continued improvement, Fraser’s teammates screamed and lifted him into the air after his assured, polished routine on the parallel bars scored 15.000 and edged out Turkey’s Ahmet Onder by .017 points.

The gold medal may have been a surprise, but the 20-year-old Fraser’s rise has been coming. At the European championships this spring, he missed out on the all‑around bronze medal by 0.033 points and finished eighth in the men’s all-around final. His victory in Stuttgart marks the first medal for Britain on the apparatus, and perhaps the first of many.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Britain’s Joe Fraser flies high on his way to winning gold on the parallel bars at the world championships in Stuttgart. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Fraser’s gold medal wrapped up two of the greatest days in British gymnastics history. Ellie Downie bounced back after failing to qualify for the all-around final by winning bronze on the vault and Max Whitlock secured his third world championship gold medal on the pommel horse with a score of 15.5.

Meanwhile Downie’s sister, the 27-year-old veteran Becky, put behind her years of injuries and heartbreak and near misses by executing her newest, hardest uneven bars routine to win a silver medal.