Japan won gold in the men's team foil event at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, with the 45-36 victory over Italy moving the nation to the top of the fencing medal table at the games.
The world's No. 1.-ranked team of Kazuki Iimura, Kyosuke Matsuyama, Takahiro Shikine and substitute Yudai Nagano joined Koki Kano in winning fencing gold medals for Japan at the Grand Palais in Paris.
"I believed we had the quality to win the gold medal. There was pressure to get a team medal (for Japan) for the third day in a row and I am really pleased that we were able to get the gold," said Shikine.
In taking the final fencing gold of the games, Japan made history by becoming the first non-European or Russian team to win the event at the Olympics.
"This is like a dream to be honest and I still can't believe it, but I think our patient work has come to fruition," said Nagano.
Japan opened on the front foot as Shikine took an aggressive posture in his 5-3 defeat of Tommaso Marini, with Iimura continuing the trend in the second leg to give Japan a 10-7 lead.
Italy then took the lead in the match for the first time in the fourth leg thanks to the blade of Guillaume Bianchi, who won his encounter with Shikine 6-3 for a 20-18 Italian lead.
Matsuyama returned fire against Marini on their return to the piste in the fifth, keeping the margin the same with a 5-5 result.
The speedy Iimura got the lead back in the sixth leg with a 7-3 domination of Filippo Macchi before a clash of guards in the next leg caused Bianchi to take an injury time-out with the score 31-28, but he continued strongly to reduce Japan's lead to 35-34.
Both teams called subs to the piste for the penultimate leg, with Nagano proving a game-breaker as he blanked Alessio Foconi to take a 40-34 lead and from there Iimura carried the team to gold.
"My teammates did well to pass the baton on to me (in a good position) and I just felt I had to finish the job," said Iimura.
"We were able to draw strength from the fans here in Paris and people cheering us on back home in the middle of the night."
The medal, Japan's first in the event since the 2012 London Games, comes after Kano won gold in the men's individual epee, the men's epee team took silver, and the women's foil and sabre teams won bronze.
Before the Paris Games, Japan had won three total medals in fencing.
"It's been physically and mentally hard for us with many ups and downs but nobody tried to escape from reality and that is reflected in the result today," reflected Matsuyama.
"I am really proud of all of us."
Related coverage:
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Olympics: Japan falls to Hungary in men's team epee, takes silver
Olympics: Japan wins 1st ever women's team foil medal in Paris
