Steve Scott has explained how the pairs Double Trap event went to the last pair of targets before he and his partner Stevan Walton secured England’s first shooting gold of the Games, finishing a point clear of the Indian team.

“I finished my final round five minutes before Stevan, so I was able to go up and support my team-mate,” said Scott, a 25-year-old forester from Battle, Sussex.

At that point the scores stood at 142-141 to England, but when Walton missed a bird midway through his final round it went to level pegging – until India’s Asher Noria missed one of his birds on the final double.

“Stefan stayed really cool and smoked both his birds,” Scott said. “He was quite shocked when he turned round and I told him we had the gold and gave him a big kiss.

“Even if he had missed one of his birds, we would still have won on countback. But it was great to win by a clear point.”

Walton, a 25-year-old forklift truck driver from Redditch, missed only one of his 50 targets in a first round where India’s Ronjan Sodhi registered with every effort.

“When I missed a bird near the end I had to keep my nerve,” Walton said. “But luckily the Indian, who was shooting right next to me, missed one too, so then it was just a matter of concentrating.”

There will be no raucous celebrations yet for the golden double, however – both are competing in tomorrow’s singles event. “The beers are on hold,” said Scott.

It was a less successful day for Mick Gault, whose quest for the four medals he needs to become the all-time record Games medallist goes on after he could only finish seventh in the 50m pistol, with team-mate Nick Baxter finishing fifth in a competition won by India’s Omkhar Singh.

Julia Lydall, who had taken a bronze with Gorgs Geikie in the previous day’s 25m pistol pairs event, finished seventh in the singles version, where Anna Sayyed supplied India’s third shooting gold out of four on the day.