Kruse (pictured above, left) was 10-5 up in his semi-final against world number eight Russia's Alexey Cheremisinov (pictured above, right), but lost 15-11.

"I wanted to have a complete burn-out before the Olympics and wanted to push myself to the absolute limit," said the 28-year-old, whose eighth place on his Olympic debut in Athens eight years ago was the best performance by a British fencer at the Games since 1964.

"I did just that.

"I'll settle for bronze now and we'll work on fitness when we get back."

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