Fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai won China's Hong Kong its third ever Olympic gold medal on Saturday, disappointing the home crowd as she beat France's Auriane Mallo-Breton 13-12 in sudden death in the women's epee final.

Kong wiped away tears after she clinched the title, having held her nerve after trailing 7-1 in the second period, and with a passionate home crowd, including President Emmanuel Macron, urging Mallo-Breton on.

Kong's gold emulates that of fellow fencer Cheung Ka-long in the men's foil in Tokyo three years ago, and follows Lee Lai Shan, who won the women's sailboard title in Atlanta in 1996.

"I just thought it would be so embarrassing to lose like this," she said of fighting back from a six-point deficit.

"I was not using my brain. I still think I lost, even after so many interviews."

United States First Lady Jill Biden and Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, a day after celebrating his 81st birthday, were both in attendance earlier Saturday.

The French president departed quickly to console Mallo-Breton, so he missed the men's saber title match which was won by South Korea's Oh Sang-uk.

Defending champion Sun Yiwen of the Chinese mainland was knocked out in her opening bout by Japan's Miho Yoshimura on Saturday in a major shock on the first day of the fencing at the Paris Olympics.

The two were locked at 13 touches each after the regulation three periods of 3 minutes, and 43rd-ranked Yoshimura secured victory in the first few seconds of sudden-death overtime.

It took Sun, a twice world champion, a few minutes and some back and forth with the referee to acknowledge her loss to Yoshimura, who moved into the last 16 before losing to Ukraine's Vlada Kharkova.

"I thought she didn't touch me in her last attempt, but when I asked the referee to watch the replay, he had already done it and wouldn't watch it again," Sun told Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

"Even if I file for an arbitration, the result wouldn't be changed. There's no other way. It is the Olympic rule that if a result has been determined, even if the referee was wrong, you can't change it."

Mallo-Breton had kept the home crowd on tenterhooks during her progress to the final, not least when she was 13-10 down with 36 seconds remaining in her last-32 match.

However, she somehow managed to defeat her crestfallen Ukrainian opponent Dzhoan Bezhura 14-13.

In the final, though, the Frenchwoman found being in front, and the weight of expectation, too much, and Kong was transformed after she had changed her epee.

"I was using the same epee through all my bouts, but Auriane was my first left-handed opponent, so I decided to use a different epee. I was out of solutions," said Kong.

Mallo-Breton held her lead until Kong leveled at 10-10, and then the contest became edgier.

With neither wanting to make a fatal error, they ran the clock down with the pair tied at 12-12.

Mallo-Breton realized the game was up as world No 1 Kong got the decisive touch in sudden death, the Frenchwoman turning her back and holding her head in her hands.

"That is the game. I think it was too easy at one point and she hung in there," said Mallo-Breton.

"However, it is a medal and one must be happy with that."

Mallo-Breton's medal is the first for France in the women's individual epee since the 2004 Games in Athens.

Earlier, Hungary's Eszter Muhari took the bronze, beating Nelli Differt of Estonia 15-14 in an engrossing duel.

Oh won a highly entertaining men's saber final contest with his Tunisian opponent Fares Ferjani, 15-11.

The Tunisian kept at Oh throughout, but the 27-year-old South Korean had enough in the locker to keep him at bay and add individual gold to the team title he won in Tokyo.

The bronze was won by Italy's Luigi Samele who collapsed to the floor as if it was gold, and rose in tears to kiss the head of his Egyptian opponent Ziad Elsissy.

Samele could have more reason for tears on Monday, when his girlfriend Olga Kharlan bids to win the one individual title she is lacking — Olympic saber gold — for Ukraine.

Streak ends

An era-defining winning streak in Olympic fencing was snapped in a shocking upset on Saturday as Hungarian fencer Aron Szilagyi lost his opening bout while chasing a fourth consecutive gold medal.

Szilagyi won Olympic gold in men's individual saber in 2012, 2016 and 2021 — the only male fencer to be a three-time individual champion. In Paris, he was trying to become the only fencer in Olympic history with four individual gold medals.

Instead, the streak ended in Szilagyi's first bout of the Paris Games, where he was beaten 15-8 by the 27th-seeded Fares Arfa in the round of 32, delivering one of the biggest upsets so far at the 2024 Olympics. Arfa, a first-time Olympian, racked up six unanswered points to start the bout. Szilagyi closed the gap to 6-4 but couldn't catch the Canadian.

"I'm in a bit of shock right now, so I'm not even disappointed or angry at myself yet. It happened so fast, and I never thought that my individual competition here in Paris would be so short," Szilagyi said.

"It's really a shock. It's like my opponent read me. I was an open book to him," he added. "In every touch, what he wanted, it happened. All his parries worked, all his attacks landed."

Agencies