Russia's Deriglazova ends dominance of Italy in women's foil

Source:Xinhua Published: 2016/8/11 10:39:06

Russia's Inna Deriglazova claimed the gold medal in the women's individual foil with a 12-11 victory over Italy's Elisa Di Francisca on Wednesday at the Rio Olympics.

Deriglazova became the first Russian fencer to win a medal in the women's individual foil. The world No. 2 built a 12-8 lead with less than a minute left, but defending champion Di Francisca, who was seeking for Italy's fifth consecutive gold in this event, pulled the game within one touch.

However, it was not enough for the Italian to earn an overtime with a mere 2.4 seconds remaining.

"At 12-8 she started to catch up. And this is my weakness, when I am leading and I get a few hits I start to panic. Thankfully the time was up and I believed in my victory, that I will not let her through like this and fight to the very end," said Deriglazova.

Tunisia's Ines Boubakri collected her first Olympic bronze medal by defending Aida Shanaeva of Russia 15-11. The 27-year-old is the first woman from Africa to win an Olympic medal in fencing.

Aron Szilagyi, winner at the London 2012 Olympic Games, handed Hungary a record 14 times championship in the men's individual sabre.

Szilagyi beat Daryl Homer of the United States in convincing fashion, establishing an early lead he never relinquished to win 15-8. World No.1 KIM Junghwan of South Korea beat Mojtaba Abedini of Iran 15-8 to land bronze.

"It's amazing. It's unbelievable. I'm a very lucky person to reserve the second Olympic gold medal.

"This is the fifth Olympic gold for Hungary here in Rio 2016. I hope that I made some people happy for this gold medal," Szilagyi said.

Szilagyi joined Jeno Fuchs (Hungary, 1908 and 1912), Rudolf Karpati (Hungary, 1956 and 1960), Viktor Krovopuskov (URS, 1976 and 1980) and Jean-Francois Lamour (France, 1984 and 1988) on a record two gold medals in the men's sabre individual.

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