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.

Szilagyi raced to a 7-0 lead in the opening stages, before Ochiuzzi, who had earlier knocked out 2004 champion Aldo Montano, started to force his way back into the match, bringing the score back to 10-6 before the Hungarian powered to victory.

The Olympic gold is his first major title.

The bronze medal went to Russia’s Nikolay Kovalev, who beat Romania's Rares Dumitrescu in the third place match.

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

Despite his semifinal defeat to Hungary's Aron Szilagyi, Kovalev said he was more pleased with his bronze medal than he would have been with silver, as his tournament ended with a victory.

“Third place is better than second, you’re still a winner after all,” he said in televised comments.

Kovalev had earlier knocked out world No. 1 Max Hartung of Germany.