Great Britain's Richard Kruse fell narrowly short of a historic medal in the men's individual foil at the Olympic Games in Rio this evening.

Having been beaten by Alexander Massialas in his semi-final, the 33-year-old came up against Russia's Timur Safin looking for his country's first medal of the Games.

Kruse fought back towards the closing stages of the bout before agonisingly falling to a 15-13 defeat as Team GB's 52-year wait for a fencing medal continued.

"It was very close and I almost converted a medal for Britain which would have been the first fencing medal for nearly 60 years but I couldn't quite finish it," he told reporters.

"The pressure was that fact that fencing hasn't won a medal for a long time so that was the expectation when I got out there but it wasn't to be. I came back well and learned what to do against him but learnt what to do too late.

"I was fencing him at a large distance using a lot of force but when I started thinking about what I was doing it started to work well but by then it was gone by then. I'm very proud for getting to the top four and I've been some good opponents along the way."

Italy's Daniele Garozzo claimed gold, with Massialas being forced to settle for silver.