As the other finalists completed their rounds, Lapeyre took a deep breath, got his focus right and fired the bullet that got him 10.5 points to win him his maiden gold after a decade of unsuccessful attempts. The loud cheers that greeted him was befitting the 31-year-old's efforts.

Lapeyre shot 587 in the preliminary and 101.7 in the final for a total of 668.7 points, 0.3 better than Armenia's Norayr Bakht-amyan.

"I just took my time and I had no idea that the last shot could decide the winner. I was focused and not concerned about the scores of the others," said Lapeyre, who shot above 10.5 six out of 10 times in the final.

"But then I looked at my trainer and saw people clap their hands, I knew I had won. I am so glad to win finally," added the man from Bordeaux, whose previous best Cup result was two bronze from last year's meet in Brazil and last week's series in Sydney.

Third place went to Belarus' Yury Dauhapolau with 684.9. China's Zhang Tian, who entered the final tied with Lapeyre at second with 587 points, finished fourth with 684.3. Samresh Jung of India was fourth at the start of the final but shot a lacklustre 6.4 points in his ninth attempt to finish at the bottom with 678.7.

In the women's 50m three-position air rifle event, which was delayed because of a technical problem, Lidija Mihajlovic of Serbia and Montenegro won the gold by shooting 682.7 with Slovak Daniela Peskova and Chinese Wang Chengyi, finishing second and third with 681.7 and 681.2 respectively.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation