Richard Kruse

Richard Kruse
Personal information
Full name	Richard Adam Kruse
Country represented	Great Britain
Born	(1983-07-30) 30 July 1983 London, England
Residence	London, England
Weapon(s)	Foil
Hand	Right-handed
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	80 kg (180 lb)
National coach(es)	Ziemowit Wojciechowski
Club	ZFW
FIE Ranking	Current Ranking
Medal record European Games 2015 Baku Team foil European Championships 2006 Izmir Individual foil 2009 Plovdiv Individual foil 2010 Leipzig Individual foil 2010 Leipzig Team foil 2012 Legnano Individual foil 2013 Zagreb Team foil 2016 Torun Team foil

Richard Kruse (born 30 July 1983 in London, United Kingdom) is a British fencer who specialises in the foil discipline. He has represented Great Britain at the Summer Olympics three times.^[1] In 2015, he was part of the Great Britain team that shocked Olympic champions Italy to win the first European Games gold in team foil, the first British gold medal in a team fencing event at World or European level for fifty years.

Career

Kruse won his first international medal, a silver, at the 2001 European Under 20 Championships and in 2002 won gold in at the same event.^[2]

He made his Olympic debut at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece. Competing in the men's individual foil. He received a bye in the first round, beat China's Wang Haibin in round two and Dan Kellner of the United States in the third round before being defeated 8–15 by Andrea Cassarà in the quarter-finals.^[1] His eighth-place finish was the best by a British fencer since the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, when Fiona McIntosh was eighth in the women's foil,^[3] and the best by a British man since the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, when Bill Hoskyns won the silver medal in the individual épée.^[4] In 2006 Kruse won the silver medal in the men's foil event at the European Fencing Championships.^[5]

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Kruse again participated in the men's individual foil event. He defeated Virgil Sălișcan of Romania in the round of 32 but was eliminated at the last 16 stage after a 9–10 loss to Germany's Peter Joppich. He finished 14th.^[1]

In 2009 Kruse had his most successful season to date. He won a gold medal at the World Cup event in Copenhagen and a silver medal in Paris, then gold in Venice before winning a silver medal at the 2009 European Fencing Championships held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Kruse finished the season ranked fourth in the world.^[6]

At the 2011 World Cup event in Seoul, South Korea, Kruse won the silver medal in the men's foil. he won five matches, including a 15–11 defeat of compatriot Laurence Halsted in the last eight to reach the final against Andrea Baldini of Italy. Baldini won the final by a single point, 15–14 to take the gold medal.^[7]

Kruse is coached by former Polish Olympian turned British national Ziemowit Wojciechowski.^[5] He is also a coach for his ZFW fencing club.^[8]

In 2012, Richard Kruse won bronze at the Wakayama Grand Prix. Only 2 months later he claimed another bronze at the European Championships in Legnano, having been seeded 45th after the poule stages.^[9] At the London Olympics later that year, he finished 17th in the men's individual event, losing to Artur Akhmatkhuzin in the last 32.^[10] He was part of the British team that came 6th, losing to Italy in the quarter-finals and then beating France and losing to Russia in the ranking rounds.^[11]

References