Gunning for his third gold medal of this SEA Games, Singapore's Peter Gilchrist, partnering Chan Keng Kwang, were denied the English billiards doubles title in dramatic style by Myanmar's Htay Aung and Thun Min Si Thu, who fought back from the brink to take the crown.

In a thrilling final at the OCBC Arena on Tuesday evening, Gilchrist and Chan raced to an early lead when they easily took the first two frames (100-86, 100-53).

But Myanmar, with Htay in fiery form, crushed the Singaporean duo in the next two frames (25-100, 20-101) to level the scores to set up a winner-takes-all fifth frame.

In a tense finale, the lead exchanged hands several times and after Gilchrist left the table with Singapore leading 90-48, Thun stepped up to rack up 54 points to clinch the gold at 90-102.

Gilchrist, who has already won the English billiards singles (500) and English billiards singles titles in this SEA Games, will try to complete his hat-trick in the English billiards team event on Wednesday.