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A 48-year wait for an Olympic Games medal finally came to an end, thanks to the grit and tenacity of table tennis player Feng Tianwei.
The 21-year-old held match point, leading 10-9 with Singapore and South Korea tied 2-2 in the women's team table tennis semi-finals.
This point would decide a place in the final and assurance of at least a silver medal.
A whole nation's hopes and dreams hung on how well she would respond to Korean Park Mi Young's serve.
As it turned out, Park sent her serve long, Feng won the game, and Singapore clinched its spot in Sunday's final against China.
'She gave me a present,' said Feng, of the unexpectedly swift ending. 'I definitely did not expect that.'
Nor did any among the 4,000 crowd in the Peking University Gymnasium, given the three-hour,40-minute epic, the longest table tennis duel at the Beijing Olympics so far.
But in a match that saw fortunes swing back and forth thrillingly, in a match that saw Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu beat a Korean duo previously undefeated by Singapore, anything was possible.
The moment victory arrived, how Singapore roared.
Cheers rose from about 100 Singapore fans at the venue, including President SR Nathan and Minister of Defence and Singapore National Olympic Council president Teo Chee Hean.
In Singapore, people watching the action at home, in offices and coffeeshops were simply ecstatic after the nail-biting rollercoaster ride.
On the Singapore bench, emotions flowed.
Coach Liu Guodong leapt from his seat, cleared the barricade like a world-class hurdler and hugged his heroine, Feng.
Team captain Li Jiawei wept, as she did at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Then, it was because she had missed out on a medal in the women's singles event, as Singapore's Jing Junhong had four years earlier in Sydney.
Yesterday, Li said: 'I have never cried after any victory before. But I cried because we led this team to victory and we have fulfilled Singapore's expectations of a medal.'
Yesterday, Li failed to deliver in the singles but scored in the doubles with Wang.
After watching Feng take the first game against Dang Ye Seo 11-5, 11-5, 11-2, to give Singapore an early lead, Li fell 11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 9-11 to Kim Kyung Ah, the same woman who beat her in the Athens bronze-medal playoff.
But she bounced back quickly from defeat to partner Wang and defeat Kim and Park 11-7, 11-6, 11-9.
Then Wang lost 8-11, 12-14, 9-11 to Dang, and the score was an even 2-2.
It was all up to Feng now, and how she shone.
Previously Singapore's weakest against defensive players such as Park, she proved the strongest.
'I had to be patient and wait for an opportunity to attack,' Feng said of her approach to the final match which she won 11-7, 12-10, 3-11, 11-9.
'Everyone was nervous and remaining calm during the battle proved an advantage to me.'
In the stands, Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Community Development, Youth and Sports) Teo Ser Luck summed up the feelings of many Singaporeans.
He said: 'We had great fighting spirit - this is truly the Singaporean spirit.
'I was not even born when Tan Howe Liang won our only Olympic medal in 1960. Now, I am here and we are all so lucky to be here, to be a part of this magical moment.'
At home in Singapore, 75-year-old weightlifter Tan watched the match and was pleased with the outcome.
'It's about time we won something,' he said. 'It's been so long already.'
More reports inside
