Hungary’s Aron Szilagyi defended his Olympic sabre title on Wednesday to deny Daryl Homer what would have been America’s first men’s fencing gold in over 100 years.

Another 2012 champion, Elisa Di Francisca, almost grabbed her second consecutive Olympic foil title but the Italian’s valiant fight back ran out of time and she took silver behind Russian Inna Deriglazova.

Di Francisca staged a stunning rally in the final from a 7-12 deficit with 30 seconds on the clock, coming within a touch of tying it as the final seconds ticked away.

Deriglazova said she was just trying to hang on.

“The thought running through my mind is that I would make it. Whatever it takes in those final two seconds, to run away, to fall down, I’ll do that,” she said.

The Russian did both, and it was just enough to dodge a tying touch from Di Francisca, whose top-ranked team-mate Arianna Errigo lost her second match to upstart Canadian Eleanor Harvey.

Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri took bronze in the event, making her the first woman from Africa to win an Olympic fencing medal.

Mojtaba Abedini’s fourth-place finish in the men’s sabre was the strongest performance from an Iranian fencer, and he was one touch away from the final before falling to Homer.

That set up the second final since Sunday with an American man vying for an historic gold. Of the five sports contested at each Summer Olympics, fencing is the only one where US men have not won gold in over 100 years.

Homer said Sunday’s final, fought by United States men’s foil fencer Alex Massialas, added to the pressure to perform.

“We all looked at that and I’m like, ‘I need to step my game up.’ Nothing needed to be said,” Homer recalled.

“I wasn’t going to be the friend that didn’t have a medal!”

His silver is the first US men’s sabre medal since the bronze went in 1984 to Peter Westbrook, a role model and early mentor to Homer, who ex-changed a half dozen messages in recent weeks helping to guide the young Olympian’s mindset.