Richard Kruse proud of Olympic foil performance but laments bronze defeat

The 33-year-old was competing in his fourth Olympics, with a previous best eighth-placed finish in Athens 12 years ago, but an unlikely run to the semi-finals drew hope he could become Team GB's first medal of the Rio games.

A 15-9 defeat left him in a bronze play-off with Safin, representing Russia, and despite levelling from 13-7 down, he was narrowly beaten as Britain's wait for a fencing medal, stretching back to 1964, goes on.

He said: “It was very close and I almost converted a medal for Britain which would have been the first fencing medal for nearly 60 years but I couldn’t quite finish it.

“The pressure was the fact that fencing hasn’t won a medal for a long time so that was the expectation when I got out there but it wasn’t to be."

Kruse had struggled in the play-off match early on and soon found himself 5-2 down, before Safin raced into a seemingly unstoppable lead, only for the Londoner to level.

Picture: Action Images

“I came back well and learned what to do against him but learnt what to do too late," he said. "I was fencing him at a large distance using a lot of force but when I started thinking about what I was doing it started to work well but it was gone by then.

“I’m very proud for getting into the top four and I’ve beaten some good opponents along the way.

“It is all a bit of fun. I have had a good time, been around the world and beaten some very good people so I can't complain.

“We still have the team event to go and on our day we could win it so that is the focus now.”

The men's team foil, which Kruse will also take part in, will begin at around 6pm UK time on Friday.