The 23-year-old’s score of 240.8 points saw her take top honours, beating reigning Olympic champion and team-mate Zhang Mengxue by a margin of three.

Lin had already participated in senior events in 2015 and 2016, winning a World Cup silver medal in Gabala in Azerbaijan two years ago.

She was also joined on the podium today by Singapore’s Teo Shun Xie, the bronze medallist with 217.4 points.

"I was kind of nervous during the match," Lin, the 2014 junior world champion, said.

"Zhang is a great friend of mine - we train and spend a lot of time together. 

"It’s a great feeling to win a medal here, in the first competition of the season."

Chinese Taipei’s Yu Ai Wen came fourth with 196.5 points, followed by compatriot Tien Chia Chen with 175.6.

Germany’s Michelle Skeries, competing in her first senior match after winning a silver medal at last year’s ISSF Junior World Cup in front of a home crowd in Suhl, scored 154.4 points to finish sixth.

Iran’s Golnoush Sebghatollahi was the first to drop out of the elimination match, taking eighth place with 113.7 points.

India’s Harven Srao followed her two shots later, closing the final in seventh spot with 133.6 points.

There was further success for China in the men’s 50m rifle three positions event as Hui Zicheng claimed the sixth World Cup gold medal of his career.

The 27-year-old performed a remarkable comeback in the final having found himself down in seventh after the first 15 shots and fifth at the end of the prone shooting.

With just four shots remaining, Hui was three points behind his team-mate Sun Jian, who was making his first appearance in an ISSF event and led the match both at the end of the kneeling series and after the 30th shot.

It was at that point when Hui started shooting with extreme precision, hitting the 10th ring with three of his last four shots as Sun showed signs of feeling the pressure and posted some low scores.

Hui sealed his gold medal with a superb 10.6-point shot, finishing the match with 454.2 to beat Sun by 2.6.

"I think my experience played an important role in this duel," he said.

"It’s not the first time I have done something like this in my career. 

"I wasn’t actually looking at the scores along the match, but I felt that my shooting was getting better and better."

Switzerland’s Jan Lochbihler also performed an impressive turnaround to finish third, the best result of his career in a World Cup, with 440.2 points.

The 24-year-old was down in sixth place after 15 shots, but a strong prone series helped him climb up to the medal positions.

Thailand’s Napis Tortungpanich finished fourth with 429.5 points in his first ISSF final match.

He was followed by home favourite Sanjeev Rajput, fifth with 420.6 points, and Japan’s Yamashita Toshikazu, sixth with 410.2 points.

After the 40th shot, the lowest-ranked shooters in the standings were Hungary’s Peter Sidi and China’s Pan Junhui with points totals of 400.1 and 393.8 respectively.

Action in New Delhi is due to continue tomorrow when medallists in the women’s 50m rifle three positions and men’s double trap will be decided.