14th July 2013 07:47
Leffler, 17, took the title with 5747, a Championship record, from Sweden's Emma Stenlof, with 5590 and fellow German Louisa Grauvogel, third with 5581.
Lake did not finish, missing the 800m and it was not an easy start to the second day for the Briton who cleared 4.63m in the long jump as Leffler quickly made her mark to win the event with a personal best of 6.09m.
It was a standard which she then took into the javelin where she threw further than ever before with 40.95m.
That was not enough to take the individual event, which was won by Japan's Meg Hemphill with 46.61m, but it put Leffler on course for overall glory as she led with 5007 from Stenlof with 4885.
The final event, the 800m, saw Leffler finish third in her heat in 2:26.32, two places ahead of Stenlof in 2:29.03 in a race won by Grauvogel in a 2:19.26, a personal best, and a performance that moved here from fifth into the bronze medal position.
The fourth day of these Championships had started well for Russia as Olga Shargina, 16, won the girls' 5000m race walk in 22:13.91 from Japan's Momoko Mizota, second in 22:42.77, with Italian Noemi Stella third in22:48.95.
It was a World youth leading time for 2013 and Russia then found themselves back on the podium as Maksim Krasnov won silver in the boys' 10,000m race walk.
A race won by Japan's Toshikazu Yamanishi in 41:53.80, Krasnov needed a sprint finish to take second in 42:03.10 - and it could not have been closer as he beat Spain's Diego Garcia by just 0.22.
Hungary celebrated a one-two in the girls' Hammer as Reka Gyuratz, 17, took gold with a Championship record of 73.20m from Helga Volgyi with 71.95m and Ukraine's Valeriia Semenkova, third with 68.82m.
Victory came in the second round for Gyuratz and though Volgyi responded in the next round with her best throw, it was not enough.
Ukraine's Oleksandr Malosilov led the boys' triple jump after the first round with 15.95m but he ended up fourth.
But there was bronze in the event for Germany's Dimitri Antonov with 16.02m as Cuban Lazaro Martinez won gold with a Championship record of 16.63m ahead of China's Yaoqing Fang with 16.48m.
European athletes took second and third in the girls' pole vault.
As Venezuelan Robeilys Peinado won with 4.25, Alena Kutkovskaya, of Russia, won silver with 4.15m ahead of Latvia's Krista Obizajeva with 4.05m.
There were more medals for Germany in the boys' discus and girls' 400m hurdles.
In the discus, Henning Prufer threw 65.62m in the first round to finish second behind Australia's Matthew Denny who won with 67.54m and then over the barriers, Lisa-Marie Jacoby won bronze in 58.75 behind South African Helene Swanepoel in 58.08 and Tia-Adana Belle, of Barbados, in 58.42.
And Europe ended the day with two more medals in the 800m.
Kenyan Alfred Kipketer triumphed in 1:48.01 after a fierce two laps but Russian Konstantin Tolokonnikov came charging through for silver in 1:48.29 followed by Great B