Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp equalled the world record in the women’s 25m pistol event to claim her first world title.
The 28-year-old from Gelnhausen scored 40 shots at the ISSF World Championships in Baku to equal the mark set in 2019 by Hungary’s Veronika Major.
Vennekamp, the 2022 European champion and world No.1, went into the final series of five shots certain of victory as she already led by eight.
Silver went to Ukraine’s 38-year-old Olena Kostevych, the Athens 2004 women’s 10m pistol champion who claimed bronze in this discipline at the London 2012 Games before winning world gold in 2018.
Kostevych finished with 31, and bronze went to Latvia's Agata Rasmane in her first individual senior competition with 25 hits.
With Vennekamp, Kostevych and Haniyeh Rostamiyan of the Islamic Republic of Iran having previously obtained Paris 2024 quota spots for their National Olympic Committees (NOCs), the four available in Baku went to Rasmane, Thailand's fifth-place finisher Tanyaporn Prucksakorn, Yang Jiin of the Republic of Korea and Chinese Taipei's Tien Chia-chen.
Kostevych had led early on but gradually Vennekamp pulled away.
"At the beginning we were close to another and then she had a lead which was not shocking as she is a fine shooter, I knew that I had to shoot five out of five to get breathing space, she was really strong, but I could jump a little higher to win," Vennekamp said.
She revealed that Kostevych had offered her encouragement after the European Games in Kraków-Małopolska when Vennekamp took bronze in a competition won by Greece’s Rio 2016 champion Anna Korakaki.
"Olena came to me at the European Games and said you 'got bronze today but that is not what you are reaching for, at the moment you are unbeatable, show it to the world' and that is what I did today.
"It was the biggest compliment I could ever get.
"It is amazing to hear such an important shooter that she had noticed your talent and sees yourself better than her, it is a good sport for showing friendship to one another."
Vennekamp, whose final was watched by German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ralf Horlemann, won one of the six World Cup events in the discipline, in Bophal, finishing second to Major in the previous edition in Cairo.
That was one of two wins for Major, who also secured the title at the last World Cup of the season in Rio de Janeiro a month after the World Championships.
Sylvia Steiner of Austria won at the opening World Cup in Jakarta, with Feng Sixuan of China earning consecutive titles in Lima and Baku.
Vennekamp concluded herself with another significant podium position as she earned silver at the World Cup Final in Doha.
She finished in between two young Chinese shooters, with gold going to 21-year-old Sixuan Feng and bronze being claimed by Feng’s 19-year-old compatriot Zhao Nan.
Feng, 21 and ranked fourth in the world, had finished four points clear in qualifying with a total of 590 at the world-class Lusail Sports Arena.
She produced a similar effect in the final as she totalled 37 points, finishing six clear of Germany’s world champion and world No.1.
Vennekamp had reached the concluding batch of five shots trailing her Chinese rival by two points, and it proved too much of a stretch as she missed all five to take a silver as opposed to a golden trophy with a final score of 31, shaking her head with a rueful smile.
Major was the unlucky athlete to exit in fourth place.