Katrin Rutschow-Stomporowski of Germany upset the favourites Katerina Karsten and Rumyana Neykova to claim the women's single sculls gold on Saturday.
Rutschow-Stomporowski romped home in seven minutes 18.09 seconds to enjoy a winning margin of 3.90 seconds.
Double Olympic champion Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus had to settle for the silver medal.
Bulgarian Rumyana Neykova, a two-time world champion, finished a further 1.03 seconds behind for bronze.
"It has been my dream to win the gold medal and this was my
big day," said an emotional Rutschow-Stomporowski.
"It was a surprise to win so easily, I'm lucky that my power was strong".
The German, who has not lost an international race this season, won gold in 1996 as part of the women's quadruple sculls crew.
She had a slow start on Saturday and was in fifth place after 500m but stormed through on the 1,000m half-way line.