Alex Yee timed his run to perfection to win gold in the men's triathlon in Paris today in dramatic fashion and upgrade the silver he had won in Tokyo three years earlier.
The Briton had looked certain to get silver again or even drop down to bronze at one point as New Zealand's Hayden Wilde pulled 15 seconds clear on the run.
But Wilde, who had been well behind in the swim and had to work hard to get back to the leaders on the bike leg, was finally made to pay for that effort in the final metres as Yee surged past to take the gold and live up to his billing as pre-race favourite.
In 30-degree heat, he sat leaning against the hoardings unable to move, exhausted by his efforts and seemingly dumbfounded by the result and the magnitude of his achievement.
Hailing from the London borough of Lewisham, he had talked of how his rivals were "natural born killers" while he preferred to remain calm and be in "a flow state".
In the run, he gave little away either as Wilde pulled clear or as he reeled him in, and it was hard to say whether it was the New Zealander's capitulation or the perfect timing of Yee which accounted for the result — probably a bit of both.
It followed on from the mixed relay gold he won in Tokyo and ensured he was a double gold medallist at the Games like the athlete who inspired him to take up the sport, Alistair Brownlee.
Aptly, Brownlee, who Yee had first watched as a youngster at London 2012, was among those in the stands here and predicted that his countryman would come away with gold.
But not even the most fervent of Team GB supporters could not have believed such an outcome until the final metres of a captivating race.
