There were tears of joy for the Greek team at the ISSF World Championships in Baku as skeet shooter Efthimios Mitas earned his first global title at the age of 38.
Mitas, European silver medallist in 2012, 2014 and 2015, defeated a field that included triple Olympic champion Vincent Hancock of the United States and defending champion Azmy Mehelba of Egypt.
Mitas shot 56 out of 60 to take the gold medal by one shot from Eetu Kallioinen of Finland.
Mehelba of Egypt took bronze with a score of 46, with Hancock having to settle for fourth place.
With his victory, Mitas secured a Paris 2024 quota place for Greece and Kallioinen also collected one for Finland.
"I took the quota place before the final, it was very difficult to manage it because it was my first goal, so I spoke with my coach," Mitas said.
"I tried to be calm and I forgot about the quota place when I entered the final and fought for a medal."
Mitas had led for much of the final but the emotions were only allowed to flourish once he had fired the winning shot.
"You cannot celebrate during the competition because you might lose the next target, you can celebrate only at last target but this moment was from my heart," Mitas said.
"I respect all my opponents - I know that was a very, very difficult final, but I try to be alone," Mitas added.
Mitas, who competed at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics, finishing 25th and 13th respectively, had won the penultimate World Cup before the August World Championships, earning gold in Almaty in May.
His 43-year-old colleague Nikolaos Mavrommatis won the opening World Cup men’s skeet gold in Rabat, a victory that ushered in a run of Italian success in the series.
Twenty-eight year old Rio 2016 champion Gabriele Rossetti, the 28-year-old Rio 2016 Olympic champion, won in Doha and Cairo either side of victory in Larnaca for his compatriot Erik Pittini.
The final World Cup of the season, at Lonato in July, went to Denmark’s Jesper Hansen.
The World Cup Final in Doha that concluded the season produced one of the greatest – and lengthiest - shoot-offs in ISSF history.
It ended with Denmark’s Emil Petersen claiming the men’s skeet title at the after beating Mehelba … 26-25.
Mehelba’s frustration was to some extent assuaged by the later victory of his brother, Abdel Aziz, in an equally dramatic although far less extended men’s trap final – another historic element of this extraordinary day.
Petersen, 25, had begun invincibly, scoring 20 out of 20 and maintaining his lead with 29 out of 30.
But the 2022 world champion took over the initiative to reach the last ten scheduled shots with a two-target lead over his Danish rival. However, two misses by the Egyptian and faultless shooting by Petersen saw the both men total 56 shots out of 60, bringing into play a shoot-off in the fading light.
By the time the pair had finished the floodlights at the Lusail Shooting Arena had been turned on and organisers must have been wondering if they were going to have to push back the time of the first scheduled trap final as the Dane and the Egyptian simply refused to give way to each other.
The contest continued into the dusk of a day when temperatures of around 28C and a fitful wind had tested the mettle of all those on the course.
After looking odds-on for gold going into the final 10 scheduled shots, Mehelba had appeared momentarily despairing at having to endure additional drama, and he offered Petersen an early chance as his second pair of shots resulted in a hit and a miss.
But the Dane produced a miss and a hit in his responding pair, and the two then moved into an extended period of perfection.
Taking his turn at 15-15, Mehelba produced a hit and a miss to give Petersen another chance, but the Dane missed and then hit. 16-16.
On they went without fail, all the way to 24-24, with the floodlights by now on.
In his next pair of efforts however Mehelba followed a hit with a miss, leaving him on 25 – just one ahead. As he walked back towards his coach he shrugged his shoulders as if awaiting his fate.
Once more the Dane – needing both shots to earn gold – stuck out his chin and gathered his composure before delivering the two hits that earned a victory that will be remembered and celebrated for many years.
Bronze had been claimed boldly by Italy’s Elia Sdruccioli, who needed to get all four of his sequence of shots to better the total of 35 achieved by Finland’s world No.1 and top qualifier Eetu Kallioinen.
The Finn would have gone through to the final three on bib number had the scores been level. Sdruccioli delivered – but could not challenge to two history men.
Earlier in the day there had been disappointment for the 52-year-old local hero Nasser Al-Attiyah, the bronze medallist at the London 2012 Olympics who this year earned a fifth title in the Dakar Rally, as he missed qualification for the final by two places.
Greece’s world champion Mitas finished two places further back…