The hosts are the only nation with more than one gold at the end of individual competition, following on from Alice Volpi's success in the women's foil yesterday.

Marini clinched an Italian foil double, the 23-year-old upgrading from silver at last year's World Championships in the Egyptian capital Cairo to gold at the Milan Convention Centre in the men's event.

He beat the United States' Nick Itkin 15-13 in a closely contested final.

Bronze medals went to France's defending champion Enzo Lefort, who lost 15-13 to Marini in the semi-finals, and Japan's Kyosuke Matsuyama who was beaten 15-10 by Itkin.

Matsuyama had knocked out Olympic champion Cheung Ka Long of Hong Kong with a 15-14 victory in the quarter-finals, while top seed Alexander Massialas of the US fell in the round of 32 with a 15-11 defeat to Spain's Carlos Llavador.

In the women's sabre, top seed Emura secured a successful defence of her title with a 15-11 win against Greece's Despina Georgiadou, who went one better than bronze last year in Cairo.

Emura also beat a Greek opponent in the semi-finals, triumphing 15-14 over Theodora Gkountoura.

Bulgaria's Yoana Ilieva was the other medallist as Georgiadou ended her run with a 15-8 victory in the semi-finals.

Ilieva had beaten last year's silver medallist Anna Bashta of Azerbaijan 15-8 and the second seed Sara Balzer of France 15-9.

However, the women's sabre competition was overshadowed by the highly controversial and disputed disqualification of Ukraine's four-time Olympic medallist Olha Kharlan.

Kharlan had beaten Russian opponent Anna Smirnova, competing as an individual neutral athlete, 15-7 in the round of 64 and refused to shake her hand afterwards,

She had been due to face Ilieva in the round of 32, but her opponent received a walkover after Kharlan was awarded a black card, which has led to a furious reaction in Ukraine and condemnation of the FIE's decision.

The FIE is yet to comment on the situation.

Team competitions began today, with defending champions South Korea among the teams through to the women's épée quarter-finals after beating Uzbekistan 45-32 and Japan 45-32.

Ukraine are set to be their next opponents.

South Korea are also men's sabre defending champions, and beat Uzbekistan 45-28 and Georgia 45-30 to reach a quarter-final against China.

The FIE Fencing World Championships is due to continue tomorrow with the end of those two events plus the start of the women's foil and men's épée.