Kruse ponders retirement

Kruse, who like his opponent received a bye in the first round of the individual foil competition, went down 15-5 to the 24-year-old Russian.

And Kruse – who celebrated his 29th birthday yesterday – admitted that he may only have a year in the sport left.

“I think we are nearing the end,” said Kruse who finished eighth in Athens and 14th in Beijing.

“Fencing has been very good to me, but I can’t fence like I was 21. I will probably do another year, just wind down.

“It’s been heading that way for the last few years. It’s been hard to hit form regularly. When I do it can go well, but it’s too sporadic.”

It was a disappointing morning at ExCeL with fellow Team GB fencers Husayn Rosowsky and James Davis also exiting the competition.

Rosowsky lost 15-8 in the round of 64 to Tunisia’s Mohamed Samandi, while Davis lost 15-10 to five-time world champion Peter Joppich of Germany in the round of 32.

A disappointed Davis said he felt Joppich, who he beat earlier in the year, had stepped up his game for the big occasion.

“It’s one of those things, they [the top ranked players] improve for the big day. It doesn’t matter if you’ve beaten them before. This is the big one, the Olympics and this is where they perform,” he added.

“We are gutted, absolutely gutted. We’ve worked hard for this and we’re all out. We are young, we’ve got a lot of improvement to make. We don’t often do this on the big stage.”