Hungary's Emese Szasz (R) competes against Italy's Rossella Fiamingo during the women's individual final of epee of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 6, 2016. Emese Szasz won the gold medal. (Xinhua/Ren Zhenglai)
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Emese Szasz earned Hungary its first gold medal at the Rio Olympic Games with victory in the women's epee individual event here on Saturday.
The 33-year-old veteran narrowly defeated two-time world champion Rossella Fiamingo of Italy 15-13 in the final. It is Hungary's third gold medal in the women's epee in the last five Olympics.
"I don't believe this. I worked a lot for this moment and maybe I have a few days before I believe. I was in the last two Olympic Games, but I did bad in London (2012) and Beijing (2008)," said Szasz, who finished 12th in Beijing and 25th in London.
Fiamingo had a chance to become the first Italian fencer to win the woman's epee individual event when she was leading 11-10 after the second round, but Szasz fought back to made it 14-12 before sealing the victory with a double-touch.
"Halfway through the bout I pushed too much, I was in a big lead (10-6) and she surprised me too many times. Maybe I was in too much of a rush," Fiamingo said.
China's Sun Yiwen won the bronze medal by defeating Lauren Rembi of France 15-13. Sun eliminated second-ranked Sarra Besbes of Tunisia in the quarterfinals.
"I think it is an amazing day. Whatever the result, I feel really happy to be here to compete in the Olympic Games," Sun said.
A raft of top-ranked fencers was ousted in the round of 32 including World No.1 Xu Anqi of China, third-ranked Tatiana Logunova of Russia and South Korea's Shin A Lam, who protested after losing the semifinals at London 2012.
