The event ended in a thrilling three-way jump-off for the second year in a row as Maitala finished narrowly ahead of Bermuda’s Philip Correia at the Dar Es Salam Equestrian centre.

Like Maitala, Correia produced three superb clear rounds in the closing competition but had to settle for silver when fractionally slower against the clock, while the host nation’s Yassine Bennani claimed the bronze.

All 11 horse-and-rider partnerships started out on a zero score in the medal-decider and five kept a clean sheet in the first round in which Bolivia’s Jorge Galindo picked up just a single time fault with Calbie Caillant.

Only three of those five managed to stay clear second time out though, meaning a jump-off would decide the medal placings.

First through the timers was Correia, who broke the beam in 43.02sec, and although Morocco's Bennani came home five seconds faster, he left one fence on the floor.

The competition ultimately came down to Maitala, who drew gasps from the crowd when hesitating at the penultimate fence before clearing the line in 42.93sec.

It gave the 20-year-old a narrow 0.09-second margin of victory over Correia and with it the gold medal.

This 15th edition of the Final attracted 22 riders from 18 nations.

Open to category A riders from 10 FEI regional zones, it was staged over five competitions beginning with a warm-up in which 12 horse-and-rider combinations shared pole position when jumping clear.

"This is the dream for any championship final, having a jump-off for the three medals," said FEI President Ingmar De Vos, who made the trip to Morocco for the event.