Italy’s Garozzo stuns Massialas, wins gold in men’s foil

Near the end of the match, Garozzo was up 14-8 when Massialas was able to take advantage of several failed touches, bringing the score within three, but Massialas was not able to get ahead.

Massialas rallied from six points down in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals and then marched in the final with confidence.

Alexander Massialas is the number one ranked foil fencer in the world, and he’s on a mission to win a gold medal in Rio. But he gave up six straight points to Garozzo in the final as the Italian ran away with the match. Despite his disappointment afterward, he had earned the first individual medal by a USA man in any fencing discipline since Peter Westbrook won bronze in the sabre in 1984. The United States is the only nation that can boast its entire team is now ranked in world’s top-20. Garozzo ditched his mask and ran the length of the piste to salute a Brazilian crowd that had made a decision to back the underdog.

But when he fell behind Italian Daniele Garozzo in the finale, the world’s top-ranked fencer didn’t have enough left in a 15-11 defeat. His father Greg was on the U.S. Olympic fencing teams in 1984 and 1988 and had been named to the 1980 squad before the boycott.

The Brit came from down 12-5 to move to within two points of victory at Rio Olympic Park before Safin finally crossed the 15-point barrier to claim the final spot on the rostrum.

Massialas rallied with seven straight points, drawing the crowd to its feet with his winning touch.

Massialas had been viewed as a favorite to win it all. Kruse went on to the bronze medal bout, where he lost to Russia’s Timur Safin 15-13. “All of us are ready”. Now paired up with Lucena, he’s got a good chance at a second medal, since the duo ranked third going into the Olympics in June.