Walthamstow’s Lutalo Muhammad captured Great Britain's first gold medal of the European Taekwondo Championship.

The Middlesex University student triumphed in the -87kg weight division of the four-day competition, with a stunning 13-4 final win over world number nine, Augustin Bata.

It was the 20-year-old’s European debut and, after securing gold, he broke down in tears and hugged coach Joseph Salim.

"I’m elated with the result as I’ve been training so hard for this and have visualised this moment for a long time," Muhammad said.

"The morale on Team GB is great at the moment as we had our most successful European performance." He dedicated the win to his father Wayne, who has trained him since he was three years old. "I am so grateful for the support and dedication from my dad. He has helped me so much and I now hope to inspire other budding athletes from East London."

It had been a roller-coaster tournament for Muhammad. He recovered from 10-1 down in his quarter-final against Croatian rival Nikola Bojo to win 12-11 on golden point.

He won a total of five fights and belied his major championship inexperience by beating Turkey's Ali Sari 5-4 in the semi-final with the last kick of the contest.

"I went through a plan with Joseph and it worked perfectly," he said. "This is a great victory and all the fans made it that much sweeter.

"It was a bit different moving up to this division because these guys are quite a lot bigger," added Muhammad who won a German Open silver earlier this year in the -80 kg category.

Muhammad, who only moved to the GB Academy last year, certainly made Britain's Olympic selectors take note with his displays.