The final got underway in an atmosphere of fascinated calm, but with a thud, a cry and a roar it came to life - and the Italian, encouraged by stray voices in the crowd, led 1-0.

Another yuko from the Baku 2015 silver medallist, much the more animated of the two, put him 2-0 up.

Twenty seconds to go. 

The two men paused, and resumed. 

And immediately Hodzic took a 3-2 lead with a three-pointer kick to the head - ippon.

But there was time for another switch in fortune as Maresca, in the dying seconds, connected with two more blows to claim himself a European gold medal by a 4-3 scoreline.

The bronze medals went to Artsiom Krautsou of Belarus and Martial Tadissi of Hungary.

No wonder Maresca had dropped to his knees at the end of the final bout- it was some act to follow for the concluding final, the men's under-75kg.

That was won by Ukraine’s Stanislav Horuna as he edged ahead 1-0 with just over a minute to go in a tense match against Azerbaijan's Rafael Aghayev - the smaller, squatter man - before producing a three-pointer ippon effort a few seconds later to secure a 4-0 scoreline.

Bronze medals went to Gabor Harspataki of Hungary and Pavel Aratmonov of Estonia.

For Huruna, mastering his emotions as the Ukraine national anthem rang out at his medal ceremony appeared to be his toughest challenge of the evening, his chest rising and falling, emotion tugging at his face.

The first Ukraine gold had been supplied in the last of three women’s kumite finals by Anita Serogina, who earned a 2-1 win over Slovenia's Tjaša Ristić in the women's under-61kg category.

Bronze medals were earned by Gwendoline Philippe of France and Merve Çoban of Turkey.

Bettina Plank of Austria had earned the first karate gold of the night here, beating Turkey's Serap Özçelik 5-1 in the women's under-50kg, where bronze medals went to Sophia Bouderbane of France and home karateka Mariya Khoulinkovitch.

A gleeful Ivet Goranova of Bulgaria ran over to her coach and leapt gleefully off the raised competition plateau into his arms after winning gold in the women's under-55kg by a 4-3 margin over Ukraine's heavily supported Anzhelika Terliuga.

Bronze in this category went to Jennifer Warling of Luxembourg and Jana Bitsch of Germany.

Latvia's Kalvis Kalnins earned the title of European Games karate champion in men's kumite under-60kg after a 4-0 win in the final over Firdovsi Farzaliyev of Azerbaijan.

Bronze medals were claimed by Angelo Crescenzo of Italy and Evgeny Plakhutin of Russia.