Romanian crack shot Alin Moldoveanu won the Olympic men’s 10m air rifle title on Monday at London’s Royal Artillery Barracks. World champion Niccolo Campriani took silver while India’s Gagan Narang won bronze.

Moldoveanu, who qualified for the final with an Olympic-record-equalling score of 599, held his nerve to finish strongly and deny Campriani, notching a total of 702.1 points to the Italian’s 701.5

The Romanian, ranked a lowly 34th in the world, was fourth in the event in Beijing in 2008.

Campriani was chasing a golden treble in London. The world number one in the 10m air rifle is also entered in the 50m rifle three positions, in which he is also the world number one, and the 50m rifle prone.

In the 10m air rifle, the top eight competitors from the qualification round reach the final, shooting a further 10 shots, each fired individually under timed conditions.

The score in the final is added to the score achieved in the qualification round to determine the winner.

On home soil in 2008, the powerful Chinese took five of the 15 shooting golds on offer, making them the top performers ahead of the United States.