The 2012 Olympic fencing gold medalist, Gu Bon-gil, was knocked out early at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Wednesday.

Gu lost to Mojtaba Abedini of Iran 15-12 in the round of 16 in the men's individual sabre at Carioca Arena 3. Gu helped South Korea to the team gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, and was seeking his first individual Olympic medal here.

There will be no men's sabre team event in Rio under the Olympic rotation system. There are maximum 12 events across three disciplines -- epee, sabre and foil -- for men and women, and only 10 of them are contested at the Olympics.

Gu, world No. 4, opened the scoring just one second into the bout against Abedini, but then things quickly went downhill from there. The 15th-ranked Iranian closed out the opening period leading 8-6. Gu briefly took a 9-8 lead in the next period, but at 12-12, Abedini scored three consecutive points to finish off Gu.

The other South Korean in men's sabre, world No. 2 Kim Jung-hwan, reached the quarterfinals, after beating Sandro Bazadze of Georgia 15-14.

He's the only South Korean left in fencing Wednesday. Earlier, Nam Hyun-hee and Jeon Hee-sook both took early exits in the women's individual foil. (Yonhap)