Amber Hill admitted she was “absolutely buzzing” after becoming a European Games Champion on Saturday, following a marathon shoot off to claim gold in the women’s skeet in Baku.

The 17-year-old, who also all but secured her place at the Olympics in Rio 2016, triumphed against Diana Bacosi after hitting 45 out of 46 clays in the final match up and capitalising on a rare miss from the Italian.

Barring any major selection issue, Hill has now booked herself a seat on the plane to Brazil in 14 months time.

Hill, who trains at the E.J. Churchill shooting ground in Lane End, had finished second behind Bacosi in qualification with 73, before following that with a perfect 16 out of 16 shoot in the semi-final to book a place a in the gold medal match.

She said: “I’ve never known anything like it. Diana Bacosi is incredible – to shoot 75 out of 75 in qualification and then do that in the final is incredible but I wasn’t going to let her win this time.

“I’ve been fighting so hard for this and I can’t believe this has happened. I had a bit of a rocky start to the year but I’m absolutely buzzing about this.”

Hill and Bacosi, who earlier shot a world record 75 out of 75 in qualification, were joined on the podium by Italy’s Chiara Cainero after she beat Danka Bartekova of Slovakia for the bronze.

Hill’s gold medal is Team GB’s fifth at the inaugural games and marked a return to form for the shooter, who was named the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2013.

That accolade came her way after she became the youngest ever winner of a senior World Cup event in skeet shooting when she was just 15.

A more testing time in 2014 saw Hill fail to qualify for the semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but she stood proudly atop the podium once again in Azerbaijan.

“In training I try and get myself into a focused mode and I was lucky out there that I was able to find my rhythm and I had confidence in my ability and my training and it paid off. I’m absolutely thrilled with the result.”