In the greatest year of her sporting life, Greece's European pole vault champion Ekaterini Stefanidi became the Olympic champion in Rio on Friday night.
Stefanidi took her sensational form from Amsterdam to win gold on countback on 4.85m from American Sandi Morris with Eliza McCartney (4.80m) breaking the New Zealand record for third.
'I am glad to make my country proud,' said Stefanidi, 26. 'I cannot believe what has happened and it is amazing.'
In the end, the key to gold came at the height of 4.70m, which Stefanidi went over first and Morris cleared at the second attempt.
But what joy for Stefanidi when she achieved 4.85m, as she celebrated even before she hit the mat.
The drama was not over. After Stefanidi had failed with her three attempts at 4.90m, Morris then had the final go of the night at 4.90m, which she thought she had cleared before the bar fell off.
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It sparked amazing scenes of delight for Stefanidi, one of Europe’s athletes of the year and whose parents were in the stadium watching their daughter’s golden glory.
Since winning gold at the world youth championships in 2005, Stefanidi has been a constant on the podium and once more she proved a brilliant championship performer.
Morris has the world lead of 4.93m - Stefanidi’s best is 4.86m - and the American entered the competition before her rival, clearing 4.50m.
Stefanidi began at 4.60m, which she went over first time, and did the same at 4.70m before needing two efforts at 4.80m and 4.85m, just like Morris.
Despite failing at 4.90m, it did not matter because Greece had their first medal of the track and field programme and Stefanidi was jumping with joy at what she had just achieved.
Britain’s women sprinters were equally delighted as they won the team’s first 4x100m relay medal since the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles with bronze in a national record of 41.77 behind the USA (41.01) and Jamaica (41.36).
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Asha Philip, 25, led them off, handing on to Desiree Henry, 20, who then gave the baton to European 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, 20, who ran a great bend before handing over to Daryll Neita with the team in third.
Neita, only 19, never panicked as she crossed the line for bronze - and it was some performance considering the team did not even qualify for London 2012.
At those Games, Henry was one of the youngsters who lit the Olympic cauldron and now she is a medallist.
Speaking to British Athletics, Asher-Smith said: 'We have had relay practice since January! It means an awful lot, because not only have we worked hard to get faster as individuals, we have worked hard as a team.'
The men’s hammer saw Europe bank two medals, with Belarusian Ivan Tsikhan (77.79m) winning silver and Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki landing bronze (77.73m) as Dilshod Nazarov (78.68m), of Tajikistan, became the Olympic champion.
Tsikhan had led after the second round (77.43m), Nazarov (78.07m) overtook him in the third before throwing 78.68m in the fifth, the stage of the competition where the Belarusian reached his furthest mark.
But what a finale for Nowicki, who was out of the medals before the last round with 74.94m before delivering his best effort to move from seventh to third.