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Fencing: Two decades and 20 seconds divide gold, silver

South Korean fencer Park Sang-young came from behind in the final seconds to snatch gold from a man twice his age, upsetting 41-year-old Hungarian Geza Imre to become the youngest Olympic epee champion in over a century.

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Park scored six points consecutively to win the bout and earn South Korea its first medal in any epee event.

Park was initially down 14-10 under the three minutes mark when he finally reeled off five uncontested points to make a comeback and seal his victory. Since this is the festival for everyone, I wanted to enjoy myself. “I did not want to have any regrets, and I think it showed”.

With the silver, Imre, who was competing in his fifth Olympics, has the distinction of being fencing’s oldest individual medallist since 1952, having also won Olympic silver with Hungary in the team event in Athens 2004.

Exempted from the first round, Limardo debuted against Fayez, who surprised the Venezuelan with a one-sided thumping at the Carioca Arena 3.

Park then got one more point, but Imre was able to give another point, making it a 14-10 game. “And it was with speed that I made a decision to enter this match and tried to win that way”.

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For 31-year-old Velikaya however it was a second consecutive silver, as the world and European champion was beaten in the London 2012 final by Korea’s Kim Jiyeon, who was eliminated this time around in the table of 16 by world number 26, Loreta Gulotta of Italy, by a score of 15-13. He also clinched a silver medal at the 2014 World Fencing Championships in Kazan, Russia.

Park rally lands fencing gold for Korea