Friman emerged victorious from a dramatic shoot-off against Romania’s Dragomir Iordache to finish at the summit of the podium at the Schießsportzentrum in Suhl-Friedberg.

Both the 17-year-old Finnish shooter and his Romanian rival had scored a total of 246.4 points after Iordache scored an impressive 10.8 with his last shot.

It meant only a shoot-off could determine the winner and Friman laid down a daunting marker with a 10.4.

Iordache was not able to match his opponent as he could only manage a disappointing 9.8 to ensure the junior world title went the way of his Finnish opponent.

Liu Yukun of China was the recipient of the bronze medal as he scored 225.5.

The result marked the second medal of the season for the 20-year-old after he also claimed bronze at the senior ISSF World Cup in New Delhi earlier this year.

Austria’s Stefan Wadlegger narrowly missed out on a place on the podium as he finished 1.5 adrift of Liu with a score of 203.

It represented a solid performance from the Austrian shooter on what was his maiden international appearance at this level.

Austria took the team honours on a world junior record total of 1865.6, comfortably in front of nearest challengers Norway, who ended with silver on 1858.

The bronze went the way of Russia thanks to their total of 1855.8.

More than 500 shooters, representing 65 countries have registered to compete at the Junior World Championships.

Action continues tomorrow, with gold medals due to be awarded in the women's 50m rifle three positions, the 10m air pistol men's competition and in the women's 10m air pistol.