Wheelchair fencers Oliver Lam-Watson, Piers Gilliver and Dimitri Coutya team up to win foil silver for second successive Games in Paris
The medal rush continued for Britain’s wheelchair fencers in the Grand Palais on Thursday as Dimitri Coutya, Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson won men’s team foil silver.
It was a repeat of the trio’s achievement in Tokyo, with China – featuring three individual foil medallists – once again proving just too strong in the final
The Bath-based Brits put up a fantastic fight, though, and led 20-15 after the first four rounds. China turned things around in the next four and went on to win 45-34 but Gilliver ensured they had to battle to the end as he took seven points off Category A champion Gang Sun.
Gilliver, Lam-Watson and Coutya, buoyed by his individual Category B foil gold medal the previous evening, were dominant in the previous rounds as they eased past Brazil (45-17) and hosts France (45-25) to guarantee themselves a medal.
The trio – who all train in the Wheelchair Fencing National Training Centre at the University of Bath – will seek more team success in the epee competition on Saturday. Before that they, along with Gemma Collis, are the contesting the individual epee events on Friday, where Gilliver is the defending Category A champion.
