Britain's fencers ended the Olympic test event on a high as they won the team foil gold in London.
Hosts end on a high with confidence-boosting gold
Britain's fencers received a much-needed boost to their confidence by winning the team foil gold in the Olympic test event at London's ExCeL arena.
Richard Kruse, Laurence Halsted, James Kenber and Ed Jefferies beat China 44-43, France 45-25 and then the Russians 45-34.
The second-string British side also reached the semi-finals with a one-point victory over the top-seeded Italians, but then lost 45-42 to Russia.
The performances made up for the disappointment of Saturday's individual competition when just Kruse of the eight-strong home squad managed to reach the quarter-finals.
While Kruse is the only British fencer currently in the top 40 in the world, Russia's line-up included ninth-ranked Alexey Cheremisinov and 19th-ranked Dmitriy Rigine.
The French, meanwhile, had two of the sport's top seven and former Olympic champion Brice Guyart, while China had two of the 12.
Italy will be strong favourites to lift gold at next summer's Games. They currently boast four of the top five foil fencers in the world, but did not send any of them to the test event.
Britain are ranked 10th at present, but as host nation can be added to the eight sides who qualify automatically at the end of March.
They will be trying desperately to improve their position in the new year as otherwise it could mean taking on the powerful Italians in the quarter-finals.
