The result saw the country continue to dominate the sport at Baku 2015 as it gave Serbia their fourth gold of the event and their sixth overall.

Mikec finished on a commanding total of 192.2, 4.7 in front of Slovakian Pavol Kopp, who added an Olympic quota place for Rio 2016 to his silver medal, while Turkey’s Abdullah Omer Alimoglu clinched bronze.

The women's skeet event provided the most thrilling spectacle of the day as Britain's Amber Hill caused a huge upset, winning a marathon shoot-off with Diana Bacosi of Italy.

Another Italian, Chiaro Cainero, rounded off the podium by beating Danka Bartekova of Slovakia to bronze.

Elsewhere on a fascinating day of shooting competition, Switzerland’s Heidi Diethelm Gerber was victorious in the women’s 25m pistol event, ousting  Bulgarian Antoaneta Boneva in the final, while Monika Karsch of Germany edged Russian Yuliya Alipova in the bronze medal contest.

Mikec took a while to get going in the men’s 50m final as the early stages were led by Ukrainian Oleh Omelchuk, but once he found his rhythm, he always looked like topping the standings as he gradually began to extend his lead.

After the eighth stage, the Serbian had an imposing advantage of 4.6 points over Kopp and going into the final shot, only a disastrous attempt would have wrestled the gold from his grasp.

He never relinquished the pressure, posting 10.4 on his final effort to finish with a flourish and claim a superb overall points haul, while Kopp was some way adrift in second.

It proved to be an historic event for Alimoglu, the only shooter to register a perfect score of 10.9, as he claimed his maiden career medal with bronze on 167.1.

“After the [10m] air pistol I didn't relax and I didn't celebrate,” Mikec said.

“I just cooled down and prepared for my other discipline, which is my favourite one so I feel more confident here."

In what was an enthralling women's skeet gold medal duel, both competitors missed only a solitary target in the semi-final and final combined and they could not be separated at 15-15 at the end of the contest.

That meant the destination of the gold medal would be decided by a shoot-off.

At one point it looked as though it was going to be a long evening as the shooters dropped target after target.

But Bacosi, the world number one, missed her 29th shot and that allowed Hill the chance to seal gold if she could maintain the composure she had kept throughout the event.

The young Briton, whose missed shot earlier in the final was her only mistake on an almost perfect day, duly took advantage of the opportunity as she convincingly hit both targets to win her country’s fifth European Games gold.

In the women’s 25m competition, 46-year-old Diethelm Gerber finished joint-top alongside Bulgarian Boneva after the qualification round but the Swiss proved too strong in the final, claiming an 8-4 triumph.

The two-time European champion surged into a 4-0 lead before Boneva restored parity, levelling the intriguing contest at 4-4.

But Diethelm Gerber kept focused and delivered two excellent stages, scoring four hits in both to seal European Games gold and a quota place for Rio 2016.

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