The 30-year-old, who has competed at Athens 2004 - where his eighth place finish was the best by a British fencer since Barcelona 1992 - Beijing 2008 and London 2012, won his first international medal when he claimed silver at the 2001 European Under-20 Championships before securing gold at the event the following year.

He clinched his first senior European medal in the Turkish city of İzmir in 2006 when he won silver and he repeated that result again in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 2009 - the year in which he had his most successful season by winning gold at the World Cup in Copenhagen - silver in Paris and gold in Venice to place fourth in the world rankings.

Richard Kruse has won medals at five separate European Championships since 2006
©British Fencing


He has since gone on to medal at the 2010, 2012 and 2013 European Championships, as well as securing gold at the 2013 World Combat Games in St Petersburg.

He is now aiming to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

"This weekend I'm celebrating my 100th cap representing Great Britain at senior international events," Kruse said.

"I'm still not quite sure where all that time went but it is nevertheless a huge milestone in my career."

Alex Newton, British Fencing's performance director, claimed Kruse is "a brilliant technical fencer and an amazingly robust athlete".

"He has been one of our most successful international fencers, but more impressively, for a significant and sustained period of time," he added.

"It is not easy to compete at the top level in sport but for him to have remained in the top 16 of our sport for the majority of his international career is testament to him as an athlete."

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