New Delhi: The fencing events began at the London Olympics on Saturday with the women's individual foil. Google Doodle brings in it own version to highlight the sport.
Elisa Di Francisca won gold in fencing's individual foil at the Olympics on Saturday, beating Arianna Errigo 12-11 in extra time of an all-Italian final.
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Di Francisca, who was the 2010 world champion, upset top-ranked Nam Hyun-Hee of South Korea by the same score in the semifinals.
"This is very emotional for me," Di Francisca said. "The final was very, very difficult. I went from 'I want to win' to 'I don't want to win' to 'I want to win.' I was just afraid of winning. Errigo is a very strong player and we both know each other so well."
Di Francisca changed her tactics for the final and chose a less attacking approach than in her previous matches.
"Normally, I play more like a tiger, but in the final I calmed down," Di Francisca said.
In the other semifinal, Errigo beat three-time defending champion Valentina Vezzali 15-12, denying her Italian teammate a change to become the first female athlete to win individual gold at four consecutive Olympics.
Vezzali then won a tense battle for bronze 13-12 against Nam.
"It was such a tough battle for the bronze medal, but in the end I managed to get it, although my goal was of course to get my fourth gold in a row," Vezzali said while fighting tears. "I wanted to win that fourth gold so badly."
Top-seeded German fencer Nicolas Limbach has been eliminated from the men's saber competition at the London Games.
Limbach was ousted 15-12 in a tense quarterfinal by Nikolay Kovalev of Russia, leaving the individual semifinals without any of the top four seeds.
Limbach says it's a huge disappointment.
Earlier Sunday, world and former Olympic champion Aldo Montano lost 15-13 to Italian teammate Diego Occhiuzzi, Russia's main medal hope Alexey Yakimenko was upset 15-14 by Daryl Homer of the United States, and fourth-seeded Bongil Gu of South Korea lost by the same score to Germany's Max Hartung.
Defending Olympic champion Man Zhong of China went out in the last 16.
(Agency Inputs AP)
