Olympic Fencing: Richard Kruse misses out on bronze medal for Team GB
By Richard Damerell
Last Updated: 07/08/16 10:37pm
British fencer Richard Kruse narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the men's foil at the Rio Olympics.
The 33-year-old Londoner lost 15-13 to Russian Timur Safin in the bronze match on Sunday night.
He had earlier completed a narrow 15-13 win over Gerek Meinhardt in the quarter-finals to set up a clash with Alexander Massialas, another US fencer, in the last four of the competition.
But world No 1 Massialas won 15-9, meaning Kruse faced Safin, and although he recovered strongly in the latter stages of the contest he came up agonisingly short.
Britain enjoyed success in the table tennis as Liam Pitchford eased into the third round with a 4-1 win over Zokhid Kenjaev of Uzbekistan.
The 23-year-old from Chesterfield lost game three 11-8 but quickly gained command to win the next two, securing a third-round clash with ninth seed Jeoung Youngsik of Korea.
But Colin Oates enduring a frustrating penalty decision defeat to Kilian Le Blouch in the judo tournament at the Rio Olympics.
The Londoner had claimed gold at last year's Commonwealth Games, but suffered an early exit in Brazil after committing a third decisive penalty when the round of 32 bout went to golden score.
Both men failed to register a single point during a scrappy contest and Oates was just eight seconds from qualification when the referee issued a fourth penalty, levelling the tally at two penalties apiece.
With Oates still pushing for a decisive point, he was penalised again, sending Le Blouch into the next stage.
