London Taekwondo fighter Lutalo Muhammad claimed gold for Britain at the European Championships in Manchester.
The 20-year-old, making his debut in the competition, recorded a superb 13-4 win over world number nine Augustin Bata of France in the under-87kgs division.
"This is a great victory and all the fans made it that much sweeter," he said. "It was a bit different moving up to this division because these guys are quite a lot bigger."
Muhammad, who stepped up from the under-80kgs, had earlier looked on his way out of the tournament when trailing 1-10 in his quarter-final against Croatian Nikola Bojo, before recovering to win 12-11 on golden point.
Aaron Cook will defend his under-80kgs title on Saturday, with the weight category having been pre-nominated for one of the four on the Olympic squad, which will be announced later this month.
Muhammad won a silver medal at the German Open in the under-80kgs earlier this year, and has not yet given up on making it to London 2012.
"I can only do my job which is performing well on the mat," he said.
"I think I have done my job. I am not one of the selection panel, I will leave that up to them."
Fellow Olympic hopeful Jade Jones, a world silver medalists in 2011, will also fight at the Regional Arena on Saturday.