Their contest was one of the closest fought at the Crystal Hall today and produced a fitting finale to the second day of fencing at the Games, with the two of them  neck and neck throughout the gold medal match with winner decided on the first fencer to 15 points.

Wator had the advantage at the halfway stage of the final as the 21-year-old led by a score of 8-7,but having been pegged back by Bunyatova after earlier holding a 7-4 advantage.

With the crowd on her side Bunyatova clawed herself back into the contest during the second period of the final and appeared to be on the verge of adding to the host’s gold medal tally as she was just two points away from victory with the score 13-11 in her favour.

A dramatic finale was confirmed as this time Wator fought back and forced the gold medal match to a decisive final point with the scores level at 14-14.

Both fencers launched themselves forward in attack before wheeling away claiming victory, leaving it to the referee to check the video replay which confirmed that Wator had taken the contest to the disappointment of the home crowd.

The 21-year-old Pole had already claimed a 15-11 victory over Bunyatova’s twin sister Sevinc in the semi-finals forcing the Azeri athlete to settle for bronze, along with France’s Margaux Rifkiss who lost 15-9 to Bunyatova in the first semi-final.

The men’s foil gold medal match was nearly as dramatic as Italy’s Alessio Foconi came from behind against Russia’s Timur Aslanov to seal the European Games title.

Having trailed 7-4 the final looked like it could be slipping away from his grasp but having noticeably gestured to his coach that he needed to calm down, Focani appeared far more relaxed and began taking charge of the contest.

The Italian firstly levelled the match at 9-9 before winning six of the final eight points to take the contest 15-11 and consign Aslanov to the silver medal.

Focani had already been to the brink of defeat earlier in the day after facing match point against his compatriot Francesco Igargiola with the scores at 14-13, but Focani claimed the final two points of the match to turn it on its head and win the contest 15-14.

 It left world junior number one Igargiola on the third step on the medals podium and he was joined in taking bronze by France’s Jean-Paul Tony Helissey after he had fallen to a 15-10 defeat to Aslanov in the semi-final.

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