Read more: Olympic games 2012 in London

Kovalev raced to a 4-0 lead and held on to his advantage all the way to sealing a 15-10 win.

 

Both fencers had earlier survived an afternoon session that saw many of the world's highest-ranked fencers suffer embarrassing early exits.

 

Hungary’s Aron Szilagyi took his country’s first gold medal of the London Olympics with a win in the men’s individual saber competition Sunday.

 

Szilagyi beat Italy’s Diego Ochiuzzi 15-8 in the final, after a day’s competition that saw most of the world’s top-ranked fencers suffer early defeats.