Venezuela»s Ruben Limardo Gascon celebrates with his gold medal on the podium.
Venezuela’s Ruben Limardo Gascon broke his country’s 44-year gold medal drought on Wednesday when he defeated Norway’s Bartosz Piasecki 15-10 in the men’s epee competition for the nation’s first fencing medal.
Piasecki’s silver was also a first fencing medal for Norway.
The men’s field was upended early in the day after Estonian world number one Nikolai Novosjolov was defeated by Seth Kelsey of the United States while the Baltic nation’s prime minister Andrus Ansip looked on.
Kelsey took fourth, losing the bronze medal match to South Korea’s Jung Jinsun by a single touch.
Limardo Gascon’s medal is the first of these Games for Venezuela.