(Oly) defending champ Kim suffers third-round loss

[Yonhap News Photo]

Defending Olympic fencing champion Kim Ji-yeon suffered a shocking third-round loss at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Kim, the women's individual sabre gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, lost to Loreta Gulotta of Italy 15-13 in the round of 16 at Carioca Arena 3.

Kim went down 2-0 early in the bout before going ahead 9-5. Gulotta, though, ate into the deficit and made it an 11-11 tie.

Then Gulotta scored three unanswered points to take a 14-11 lead. With her back against the wall, Kim managed to pick up two points, before the Italian closed out the bout with the 15th and the clinching point.

(Yonhap)

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com