THE silence in the room was deafening. One could hear a pin drop. Or, in this case, a tiny pellet being fired from an air rifle.

Abel Lim, 16, looked down at his computer screen while his teammates and supporters stared at the television monitors to see the score. The numbers 10.2 appeared.

Then, thunderous applause filled the room at Safra Yishun as the score meant that the Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School student had clinched the bronze medal in the boys' 10-metre air rifle in dramatic fashion.

He had made up a 0.6-point deficit against South Korean Kim Yong, 15, with his 10th and final shot. Kim Yong shot a disastrous 9.2 to finish fourth.

'I didn't set any expectations for myself before this competition, so this is a nice bonus,' said a delighted Abel.

His 685.6 total was just 0.6 point behind China duo Wu Jianing, 17, and Gao Tingjie, 16 who were tied on 686.2.

That took them into a sudden-death shoot-off, with Jianing edging out Tingjie 10.5 to 10.3 to claim the gold medal.

Said Zhejiang native Jianing in Mandarin: 'It doesn't matter which one of us wins as long as China gets the gold medal. That's more important.'

It was the same for his compatriot, who had qualified fourth out of 29 shooters.

'I'm not disappointed at all. It's a silver medal, I'm happy with that,' he said.

Singapore chef de mission Lee Wung Yew, a former national shooter with 16 SEA Games gold medals, was a bundle of nerves as he watched Abel.

'I couldn't breathe. It was such an exciting finish,' he said. 'Abel did a great job on that last shot. He pulled himself together mentally and took his time to compose himself.'

Throughout the eight-man shoot-out, Abel would close his eyes after each shot, shutting out the crowd of about 100 officials and athletes.

It was part of his routine, he said, to concentrate and visualise his next shot.

With the bronze medal hanging from his neck, he was finally able to relax.

'I'm going to finish the hotel food tonight,' he quipped.