The 28-year-old was participating in just his second World Cup event and hoping to improve on an 80th place finish in Beijing in 2011.

He did that with consummate ease by missing just one of his first 33 targets at the Club de Caza range in Mexico.

United States' Frank Thompson was pushing him close, but proved unable to close the gap completely as the Italian proved too consistent.

He eventually finished on a superb score of 55.

"Even if it’s been a long time since my last international competition, I didn’t came here just to participate," said Sablone. 

"I came here to win, and now it feels great.

"I trained really hard and I was pretty confident about myself."

The performance led to Italy's second successive skeet World Cup win after Riccardo Filippelli's world record score of 57 en-route to victory in New Delhi earlier this month.

Sablone came close to equalling or breaking that mark only to miss two late shots.

Thompson scored 53 to finish second and claim the first World Cup medal of his career.

Australia's Paul Adams scored 43 for a distant bronze.

The World Cup season will now take a one month break before resuming in Larnaca, Cyprus, on April 28.