London, England – Aron Szilagyi routed Italy's Diego Occhiuzzi in the final round of the men's sabre competition Sunday at the London Games, giving Hungary its first fencing gold medal in 20 years.
Szilagyi jumped out to an 8-1 lead over his Italian opponent in the gold medal match and cruised to a 15-8 victory. He became the first Hungarian to win an Olympic fencing competition since Bence Szabo also took gold in the men's sabre at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
The 22-year-old Szilagyi is the youngest gold medalist in this event since 1896, when Greece's Ioannis Georgiadis, who was also 22, won the sabre event at the first modern Olympics in Athens.
"I always dreamed of it since I was nine or 10 years old," Szilagyi said of being an Olympic champion.
Meanwhile, Occhiuzzi's silver gives Italy four fencing medals in London after Elisa Di Francisca, Arianna Errigo and Valentina Vezzali won gold, silver and bronze, respectively, in Saturday's women's foil event.
Russia's Nikolay Kovalev, who ousted world No. 1 Nicolas Limback of Germany in the quarterfinals, beat Romania's Rares Dumitrescu, 15-10, in the bronze medal bout.
Daryl Homer and Tim Morehouse of the United States finished sixth and eighth, respectively, in the men's sabre. Homer lost in the quarterfinals to Dumitrescu, while Morehouse was ousted by Occhiuzzu in the same round.
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