The Briton, who also won gold at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing when his hair was ffar more flamboyant than now, only just won however by 0.1 of a point from Sweden's Jonas Jacobsson after he held his nerve to his a 10.6 with his final shot.

Israel's only entry Shaziri Doron won his country's first medal, a bronze. to complete the podium.

Skelhon is targeting a repeat performance at the World Championships in Suhl in Germany next year.

"Pre-event training went really well, everything's just gone spot on today, everything was perfect and I don't think it could have gone any better," he said.

"The World Champs is the plan.

"I always said I wanted to be world, European and Paralympic champion.

"Now I'm Paralympic [R3 mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1] and European champion, so if I can get [the world title] done by Rio [2016], that'll take the pressure off a bit."

Britain's Matt Skelhon celebrates after winning gold at the IPC European Championships


In the women's P2 10m air pistol SH1 event, there was a first medal of the Championships for Azerbaijan's Yelena Taranova.

She recovered from a mediocre start to storm to a lead of over four points in setting a world and European record score of 195.8.

Ukraine's Olga Mustafaieva took the silver medal while Hungary's Krisztina David finished with a bronze.

The event was most notable for shock results, as both London 2012 gold and silver medallists, Macedonia's Olivera Nakovska-Bikova and Russia's Marina Klimenchenko, were eliminated and finished outside the podium places.

Elsewhere, there were team tiles for Sweden in the R6 mixed 50m rifle prone SH1 and for Ukraine in the corresponding R5 event, with both teams breaking world and European records.

Serbia's Dragan Ristic picked up R5 mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2 gold in a dramatic conclusion to the Championships after overhauling Ukraine's Vasyl Kovalchuk with his final shot.

The Ukranian led by 0.1 going into the last shot, but Ristic scored 0.2 more than his Ukrainian rival to steal the title, while Finland's Minna Leinonon took bronze.

Dragan Ristic of Serbia is congratulated after his thrilling gold medal in the R5 event


Ukraine's ended the week with four golds, two silver and two bronze medals, which was the identical haul produced by Russia.

Behind these two powerhouses Serbia finished third on the medals table with three gold, three silver and five bronze.

A total of 14 individual and nine team European titles have been awarded over five days, where 175 shooters from more than 30 countries, including 21 medalists from London 2012, battled it out to claim glory in rifle and pistol events.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]

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