Fencer Aldo Montano of Italy struck Olympic gold in the men's individual sabre on Saturday beating Hungarian Zsolt Nemcsik 15-14 in a thrilling final.

"I am living a dream from my youth. Ever since I was born I was hoping for this. I can't understand what happened," Montana told reporters.

"From this morning I had the feeling that something will happen today but I didn't expect this."

Ukrainian Vladislav Tretiak, ranked 24th going into the competition, took the bronze medal with a 15-11 win over Dmitri Lapkes of Belarus.

Montano, a 25-year-old from Livorno, who took bronze in the world championships in Havana last year, had to fight back from an early 5-1 deficit to take the bout which went to the last possible point.