Italian foil veteran Sanzo Salvatore outscored China's top seed Zhu Jun by one point to take the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.

Sanzo took an early lead of 5-1. After Chinese foil coach Wang Haibin asked for a pause, Zhu managed to catch up and leveled the score at 6-6 and 7-7.

The neck-and-neck competition kept going as the two tied 12-12 and 14-14. The 33-year-old elite finally finished the match through a critical thrust.

The gold medal bout will start between Japanese Ota Yuki and Germany Benjamin Philip Kleibrink.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)