Chinese athlete Zhu Xueying finished her routine with a thrilling acrobatic exclamation point to win the gold medal in the girls' trampoline at the Youth Olympic Games on Thursday.

Zhu's full-twisting double layout somersault ended a routine that earned the highest difficulty and execution scores of the final for a winning total of 55.425 points.

"This gold medal means a lot to me," she said.

For Zhu, competing with less than maximum risk may have been enough to win, but it might also have proven costly.

"I've been training this routine for quite a long time and I got familiar with it," she said. "Even if I chose a safer one, I might not be able to perform it well."

A former gymnast, Zhu switched to trampoline gymnastics at the age of 10.

"I loved trampoline even when before I started training for it," said Zhu, who aspires to win gold at the Olympic Games.

"Every kid loves jumping. It's great fun."

Japan's Rana Nakano and Russia's Maria Zakharchuk won silver and bronze with 52.37 and 52.36 points respectively.