Suranji, 34, took the first gold medal of the day in the men's SH1 R1 10 metre air rifle standing ahead of Germany's Beijing 2008 silver medallist Norbert Gau and 17-time Paralympic champion Jonas Jacobsson of Sweden.

The Serbian set a finals world record of 206.4 points in the process to get the Championships off to a flying start.

Gau was delighted with his performance and silver medal after enduring a frustrating few years since his performance in Beijing.

"It is a great feeling," said Gau, who managed to secure team gold and a European record of 1838.9 for Germany along with Josef Neumaier and Kevin Zimmerman.

"The last few years were not so good for me.

"I have been in the middle of the field after winning silver in Beijing, so this is a little comeback for me."

There was team gold for Russia in the SHI P3 mixed 25m pistol competition with Sergey Malyshev leading the way for the Russians, however, despite looking like the man to beat in the qualification rounds, Malyshev had to make do with fourth in the individual standings after a poor final.

Germany's Frank Heitmeyer also appeared to be on track for a tilt at gold as he began the final in fine form but he came up against Turkey's Korhan Yamac who was in inspired form, hitting the target seven times to take the gold medal, with Heitmeyer in second and another medal for Serbia in the form of Zivko Papaz.

British veteran Deanna Coates is still going strong and took silver in Alicante at the IPC Shooting European Championships