Piers Gilliver defends Wheelchair Fencing World Championships title as he and Dimitri Coutya bag four more global medals in Italy
Piers Gilliver successfully defended his Wheelchair Fencing World Championships epee title as he and Dimitri Coutya brought home four medals from Italy between them to their University of Bath training base.
Paralympic champion Gilliver battled through nail-biting quarter- and semi-finals against China’s Jianquan Tian and Gang Sun respectively, winning both 15-14, before dominating the Category A epee final in Terni by beating home favourite Emanuele Lambertini 15-4.
Gilliver, based at the Wheelchair Fencing National Training Centre in the Team Bath Sports Training Village, had gone mighty close to winning the Category A sabre title two days earlier, narrowly losing out 15-13 defeat to Ukraine’s Artem Manko in the final. He had been in fantastic form in the knockout stages, only conceding 17 hits in four bouts.
Training partner Coutya, who won Category B epee gold at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, reached the final again in Terni but had to settle for silver on this occasion after a hard-fought 15-10 defeat to China’s Benjun Qin.
Coutya and Qin had met in the Category B foil bronze-medal match earlier in the week, the Brit coming out on top 15-5 to deservedly secure a podium place after bouncing back brilliantly from a quarter-final defeat to eventual champion Yanke Feng of China.
The World Championships were the last major global competition before the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, where Gilliver and Coutya – both coached by Peter Rome – will again be looking to add to their medal haul.
Click here to find out more about the hugely-successful British Fencing Wheelchair Fencing programme based at the University of Bath.
Pictured top: Piers Gilliver (left) and Dimitri Coutya with their epee gold and silver medals. CREDIT: World Abilitysport.
