Despair turned to joy as Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds secured a guaranteed medal match in the mixed doubles curling at the Winter Olympics.
Mouat and Dodds were left frustrated after a 6-2 round robin defeat to Norway's Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Shaslien left them with a 5-3 record, heading into what appeared a must-win match with the United States in the early hours of the morning.
But Australia's surprise victory over Canada and unbeaten Italy's win over Sweden meant a complicated mathematical equation of head-to-head matches still secured a semi-final place.
"We’ve just had a hug," said Mouat, who learned the news about their final four place as he waited for a bus back to the athletes' village.
"We are obviously very excited. We’ve still got a job to do and we want to finish the round robin with a win; that’ll set us up well for the semi-finals.
"I don’t think we knew the permutations of people winning and losing. We know it’s going to be tough whoever we play in the semis, we just want to go out and string out eight ends like we know we can.
"We were the first athletes to start for Team GB and to be able to get a medal would be a great achievement."
Good news update!
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 6, 2022
Results elsewhere mean Jen Dodds and @BruceMouat are now guaranteed a semi-final spot and will go for the medals 🥌#TeamGB | #Beijing2022 https://t.co/xX6JQhjssk
A revenge match against Norway is their most likely semi-final opponents but permutations could also see them take on Canada, Sweden or tournament favourites Italy.
Mouat admitted frustration the world champion partnership have lacked consistency in their matches so far, winning one match and then slipping to a narrow defeat in the next.
It's two decades since Rhona Martin's inspired the British women's rink to gold in Salt Lake City and Dodds, who is also part of Eve Muirhead's women's team in Beijing, is daring to dream.
"I don't know what I would have said 20 years if you'd told me this," she said. "I would have doubted myself and perhaps not had the confidence.
"What Rhona's gold did for our sport was amazing and I really hope we can get other kids into the sport.
"I met Bruce through curling 20 years ago and we've been best friends ever since and now here we are at the Olympics.
"We've not hit out best yet, we've not really strung together eight ends. I'm pretty confident that a great match is there, the knockouts are a different competition and I'm confident we can do it."