The two sides had been locked at 16-16 after normal time, with Lithuania taking the lead with 10 seconds to go before France hit back in the final moments, to take a match which fully deserved to go the distance to an overtime decider.

Lithuania huffed and puffed and finally blew the Gallic house down when Zemaitis found the target with what was quite literally the final throw of the game, before being swiftly buried in wild on-court celebrations.

But the 18-year-old, who managed five points overall, modestly refused to take the credit afterwards

"All my team-mates are the heroes," he said.

"The luck was in the ending and I believed I would make the shot and I did."

If Zemaitis was the hero of the final day then Katie Lou Semuelson, the American already considered a major rising star of the sport, was the heroine as she scored eight points in a slightly more comfortable girls' final.

US beat The Netherlands to win the girls' final ©Nanjing 2014



Despite being challenged hard, the US were too good in the end, running out 19-10 victors over The Netherlands in a tournament that proved another good advert for this innovative version of the game.

There was more Dutch heartache in the hockey 5s, where China won in a penalty shootout after the two girls' teams had been locked at 5-5, while the host nation eased home 5-0 over Venezuela to win a second female team title, in football.

There was a further victory for the host nation in boxing, courtesy of flyweight Yuan Chang, while Hao Yang made it four from four for the Chinese in diving, by adding the 10 metre platform title to his earlier 3m springboard one.

Another day 10 highlight came in beach volleyball, where Brazilians Eduarda Santos Liboa and Ana Patricia Silva Ramos fought back from a game down to beat Canadian twins Nicola and Megan McNamara, 17-21, 21-13, 21-14.

Brazil celebrate in beach volleyball ©Getty Images



But the penultimate day of action was a mixed one for Brazil as Marcus D'Almeida, ranked 10th in the world and considered the "Neymar of Archery" in the South American nation, lost 7-3 in the men's individual final to Lee Woo Seok of South Korea, a player who dazzled throughout the competition on his international debut.

There was European success in modern pentathlon as Maria Migueis Teixeira of Portugal and Anton Kuznetsov of Ukraine teamed up to take mixed relay honours, while Japan, North Korea, Norway and Russia scooped the four titles in women's freestyle wrestling.

In an unpredictable team golf competition in what was the first medal event of the day, Swedes Marcus Kinhult and Linnea Strom held their nerve to win the first hole of their playoff against South Korea's Youm Eun Ho and Lee Soyeong, depriving Lee of a second gold medal.

Italy defeated Denmark for bronze. 

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