Hungary's Aron Szilagyi becomes 1st Olympic fencer to win 3 individual sabre gold medals
Completes elusive 3-peat having also won event at London and Rio Games
Aron Szilagyi carved out a little bit of Olympic history for himself on Saturday.
The Hungarian became the first Olympic fencer to win three individual sabre gold medals after beating Luigi Samele 15-7 in the men's final at the Tokyo Games.
"I can't even tell you my feelings, but I am pretty much overwhelmed," Szilagyi said. "The semifinal for me was really hard. My opponent can be really very good. I had to focus well in that match to get to this one. In the final I arrived in the best shape possible. I was able to dominate and everything was in the right place."
Szilagyi used his fast reflexes to build an early 7-1 lead and held off a brief comeback from his Italian opponent before closing out the victory.
Szilagyi won gold at the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. His only loss in the individual tournament at the Olympics came in the third round in 2008. No other male fencer has won any individual event three times.
Samele reached the final after a remarkable win in the semifinals. He came back from 12-6 down to beat Kim Junghwan of South Korea 15-12.
Kim took bronze with a 15-11 win over Sandro Bazadze of Georgia.
Sun's emotional rise
In the women's individual epee final, the showdown between two of the world's best fencers ended with China's Sun Yiwen claiming her first gold after she outclassed top-ranked Romanian Ana Maria Popescu.
However, following her victory, Sun broke down in tears as she told Chinese media the heart-breaking dilemma she faced in recent weeks.
WATCH | Sun Yiwen's dramatic individual epee final:
Before the Olympics, Sun discovered that her father was terminally ill and she was unsure if she would see him again as she would have to spend a number of days in quarantine on her return to Beijing.
"It was a high probability for me to not be able to see him again after the competition at Tokyo 2020," Sun said as she struggled to speak through her tears.
"But luckily he is still alive. We remain hopeful, me and my family."
A volunteer swiftly came over with a pack of tissues, while bronze medallist Katrina Lehis stroked her back.
WATCH | Catch up on the latest news from the Tokyo Olympics:
In a tight bout, Sun managed to keep her lead as she earned China a third gold medal on the first full day of Olympic competition.
Experience, however, wasn't enough for five-time Olympian Ana Maria Popescu of Romania to win an elusive first gold medal in individual epee. She lost in overtime to Sun Yiwen of China 11-10.
Popescu, who leads the world rankings, levelled the score at 10-10 with three seconds remaining to go to overtime but Sun soon scored the winning point in the deciding period for China's third gold of the day.
Katrina Lehis of Estonia took the bronze by beating Russian fencer Aizanat Murtazaeva 15-8. Lehis was trailing 4-3 in the second period before winning the next five points to take a lead she never gave up against Murtazaeva, who was the lowest ranked fencer in the bracket at 258th.
With files from Reuters
