SINGAPORE — It was a scene of wild celebrations at The Tanglin Club squash court yesterday as best friends Vivian Rhamanan and Marcus Phua clinched Singapore’s 83rd gold medal at the biennial meet when they defeated the Indonesian duo of Ade Furkon and A Sandi Perdana 2-0 (11-3, 11-8) in the men’s jumbo doubles final.

Singapore’s current medal tally is at 83 gold, 73 silver and 102 bronze. The Team Singapore men’s water polo team will take on Indonesia today and are widely expected to deliver the nation’s 84th and final gold from this edition of the Games.

Yesterday’s triumph on the squash court was also Singapore’s first SEA Games squash gold medal in 20 years — the last time Singapore struck gold in the sport was at the 1995 Chiang Mai SEA Games when Mah Li Lian won the women’s singles event, in addiition to a gold from the men’s team events.

Under huge expectations to break the gold medal duck, Phua and Rhamanan — who beat Thailand’s Phuwis Poonsiri and C Tangjaitrong 2-0 (11-6, 11-2) in the morning’s semi-finals — took the first set against the Indonesians in 20 minutes.

A rejuvenated Indonesian pairing ramped things after the break and posed more of a challenge, but Phua and Rhamanan made the most of their chances to win the second game in 37 minutes.

“We are just overjoyed and really overwhelmed by this win because we wanted it so bad in the (men’s) team event, but took silver,” said Rhamanan, 29, who is also the national assistant coach.

“We really let our partnership work on court, and stayed strong mentally even as Indonesia pushed us in the second set. This first gold in 20 years is a team effort by everyone from the Association (Singapore Squash Rackets) Association (SSRA) ... we are hoping for the best for squash in Singapore and hopefully this win will go towards more support and funding for us.”

SSRA president Woffles Wu hailed the triumph as a step towards the revival of the sport in Singapore, which enjoyed its heyday with the likes of Peter Hill, Zainal Abidin and Mah ruling the courts in the 1980s and 1990s.

The professional plastic surgeon also said that he hopes it will urge the national sports body to come in with greater support for squash.

“Looking at the talent we have amongst us, I truly believe we are not far from returning to our heydays now and we can relive that period in a few years, maybe two,” said Wu, who was elected as SSRA President in late 2013.

“The talent we have is clearly there, and we need more funding to be able to groom these talents, give them more competition exposure, overseas sparring opportunities.

“Currently, the national team only trains at Kallang Squash Centre. In the past, the national team was able to train in courts at Kampong Java, West Coast and also the East Coast. There are 19 public squash courts in Singapore, and that is also not enough to cater to squash programmes at schools too if we are looking to groom squash players from young.”

Wu added that he is actively sussing out more sponsorships for squash, and hopes that the national team will have more competition opportunities, such as competing in the Hong Kong, Japan and British Junior Opens this year.

“We are buoyed by the news also that squash will be included in the 2017 SEA Games, and also likely to be in the 2018 Asian Games. We will aim for multiple gold medals at the 2017 Games, and also doing well at the Asian level in three years time,” he said. “Things are only looking up from here.”