Lowell Bailey provided the 2017 Biathlon World Championships with one of the sport's most memorable performances, as the 35-year-old took home gold in the men's 20km Individual event.
The first American biathlete to win a world championship hit all 20 of his targets to cross the line with a time of 48:07.4, 3.3 seconds ahead of Ondřej Moravec who also shot with perfection at the range.
Martin Fourcade of France took home bronze, finishing 21.2 seconds behind Bailey despite missing twice at the range which saw him handed two, one minute penalties.
Fourcade posts best time among early starters despite pair of prone blunders
Starting 4th out of 100 competitors, Fourcade did not enjoy the best of beginnings to his world title defence, missing once at the first shoot of the day.
In fact, many of the early starters had struggles at the range, with Anton Shipulin missing twice and Klemen Bauer three times during the first prone shoot of the day after joining Fourcade as one of the first four racers to set-off.
Fourcade's supreme ski speed helped him regroup, and despite missing once more in the second prone shoot of the day he set the fastest time among the first 50 finishers, eventually dropping down to third at the end of the race.
Czech duo shoot clear, with Moravec snatching Fourcade's lead
Fourcade survived a couple of close calls when it came to holding on to his lead, with Erik Lesser of Germany and Ukraine's Sergei Semenov each finishing within 20 seconds of the Frenchman after hitting 19 of 20 targets each.
His leading time was finally toppled by the 51st starter of the day, with Moravec hitting all 20 targets to claim the lead by 17.9 seconds over the world number one.
Moravec's Czech teammate Michal Krčmář enjoyed an equally exquisite time at the range, completing both prone and both standing shoots with no mistakes, yet finished 40 seconds down on the timesheet.
Bailey sprints for home to win gold by 3.3 seconds
Johannes Thingnes Bø looked like Moravec's biggest threat despite an early miss, yet his quickfire shooting technique ended his chances with the 20th and final target not going down and he eventually finished down in 8th.
In the end, it was Bailey, who started 98th out of 100 starters who made sure that the race for the podium positions would remain alive until the very final moments.
The Americans had come close to a number of great results earlier in the championships, with Bailey and Susan Dunklee each falling just short of the medal positions on a couple of occasions. Their marksmanship under 2004 Olympic Rifle champion and shooting coach Matthew Emmons has given them the opportunity to rival the European superpowers.
The left-handed didn't look like missing during the fourth and final shoot, giving him a 6.4 second advantage over Moravec with one 4km left to go.
This time Bailey did not allow his skiing to cost him a medal however, and after his advantage had dropped to 0.1 seconds going into the final kilometre, he produced a strong surge after entering the stadium to cross the line 3.3 seconds ahead of Moravec on a famous day for American biathlon.
The next two days of competition in Hochfilzen see the women's and men's relays take place, before racing ends on Sunday with both of the Mass Starts.