Seventeen-year-old prodigy Lim Geum-byeol won the first gold of the night after shocking Taiwan's top seed Huang Yun-wan in the under 53kg division, and her compatriot Kim Tae-hun inflicted more disappointment on the hosts after outperforming men's under 54kg rival Stanislov Denisov in the night's final bout.

But it was Liverpudlian Walkden who provided the most spellbinding moment of the evening, despite her final against French favourite Gwladys Epangue having flattered to deceive for the first five-and-a-half-minutes.

With both defending well and reluctant to drive forwards too much, there was little between the two and while Walkden had the advantage in terms of height, her opponent seemed slightly more powerful and versed in the guile and dark arts of the sport.

The Frenchwoman, world champion in 2009 and 2011, duly took a 2-0 lead deep into the third round, and when a headkick by her opponent was blanked out by the referee leaving the scoreboard unchanged, it appeared gold was hers. 

But in a sport renowned for lightening pace and quick comebacks, all that was about to change as first Epangue was penalised for two falls before Walkden struck with a brilliant second kick-to-the-head to steal glory.

After fending off a late flurry of blows the victor leapt in the air, seemingly hardly able to believe she had somehow managed to clutch victory from the jaws of defeat. 

It represented a remarkable turnaround for the 23-year-old, who suffered the first of two cruciate ligament injuries in 2011, meaning her weight category was not selected as one in which Britain participated in at London 2012. 

After suffering a second such injury at last year's Grand Prix in Suzhou, it seemed hard to imagine how she could ever return to the pinnacle of the sport, and after scraping into the semi-finals following a favourable umpire decision in a unappetising quarter-final match yesterday, few could have expected her to perform so brilliantly today.

It was the first world title for Britain since Sarah Stevenson did so in 2011, with the nation still having London Olympic champion Jade Jones to come tomorrow in the under 57kg division preliminary matches,

Medals seem no problem for Russia, meanwhile, but what they would give for that elusive gold after two more chances slipped through their grasp today. 

First hometown hero Olga Ivanova lost her semi-final to Epangue, before Denisov paid the penalty for a poor middle half of his final with Kim, the defending champion and Incheon 2014 Asian Games winner. 

Kim scored five unanswered points in the second round to move 5-0 ahead and then - despite the roaring and chanting of the home crowd - kept his opponent out of reach, stretching ahead to 9-1 before withstanding a late charge to triumph 14-7.

Russia has now won three silver and two bronze medals but chances are running out to claim a top spot on the podium. 

The first fight of the night was perhaps the least eagerly anticipated here in the arena and, although the atmosphere did not reach the crescendo levels of later on, it still provided plenty in the way of drama. 

At just 17 years of age, the name of South Korea's Lim does not even appear on the world ranking lists, but after some strong wins yesterday followed by a clinical semi-final victory over Greece's Georgios Simitsis, she was always fighting at a level far above both her age and experience.

After a lacklustre first round, the Korean took the lead after a successful appeal in the second and then, despite the best efforts of her opponent, always stayed ahead.

Huang, the Asian Games champion and number one seed, fought valiantly, but a second successful appeal by the Koreans opened up daylight, and she eventually emerged a 10-5 victor to crown a brilliant for the sport's most decorated nation.

It means that with two days to go, the 2017 World Championship host nation leads the medals table with three golds in comparison with Iran's two, with only two of the nine titles won so far having gone to non-Asian countries, in the shape of Turkey and Britain. 

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