Having won all but one of his fights in the first round the 26-year-old Londoner went into the elimination stages of the event ranked sixth giving him a bye in to the round of 32. 

His first opponent was Hungarian, Gabor Szabados, who he beat 15-11 in a closely contested fight and he then faced Romanian, Vergil Saliscan. 

In hugely tense fight at one point Kruse found himself trailing 7-11 but with pure grit and determination clawed his way back winning 15-11. 

Going into the final round of eight Kruse then drew the exceptionally talent Frenchman, Erwan Le Pechoux. 

Ranked 22nd in the world Le Pechoux dominated the early stages of the fight and having scored the first hit Kruse was unable to take the lead again in normal time.  In the third and final period Kruse had a mountain to climb at 11-8 down. 

A stunning comeback saw the scores level at 13-13 at the end of normal time taking the fight into one minute sudden death play-off. 

Holding his nerve Kruse then took the final hit which guaranteed him a medal.

His semi-final was against world number 12, Valerio Aspromonte, a former World Junior champion. 

Kruse took the initiative early on in the fight, leading 4-3 at the first break, but Aspromonte fought back in the second period to take the score to 12-10 going into the final period. 

Kruse came out looking confident having taken some instruction from his coach, Ziemek  Wojciechowski, and looked much more relaxed than his opponent. 

He took control of the distance and led 14-13 but the Italian clawed a hit back to make it 14 all. 

In a dramatic final exchange Kruse launched an attack but missed and his opponent scored the winning hit on the counter-attack.

Aspromonte faced his compatriot, current World Champion and world number two, Andrea Baldini in the final. 

Aspromonte led 5-1 going into the first break but Baldini winning the gold medal 15-11.



British Fencing’s Performance Director Graham Watts said: "Three European medals for Richard Kruse since 2006 shows that he is a consistent world class performer. 

"A gold medal at a major championships remains tantalisingly close."

Next year’s European Championships will be held in Sheffield and Piers Martin, British Fencing's chief executive, said: "This is a pleasing result for both Richard and British Fencing. 

"With the championships coming to the UK next year we are hoping for more success but this time on home turf. 

"We still have a few days to go here though and there certainly is a chance that we could get another medal or two."


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