Bath student-athlete Susie Seddon-Cowell joins Paralympic champions on Wheelchair Fencing World Class Programme
Team Bath Breakthrough Programme student-athlete Susie Seddon-Cowell has joined Paralympic gold-medallists Dimitri Coutya and Piers Gilliver on the University of Bath-based Wheelchair Fencing World Class Programme (WCP) for 2025-26.
Also selected on the WCP, operated by the UK Sports Institute (UKSI), at the start of the LA 2028 Paralympic cycle are Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 medallist Oliver Lam-Watson, four-time Paralympian Gemma Collis, U23 World Champion Josh Waddell, Shah Rashid and Justine Moore.
Matt Hammond, Para Fencing Performance Manager, told British Fencing: “Following a fantastic medal outcome in Paris, the Wheelchair Fencing World Class Programme has selected eight athletes to start the drive towards Los Angeles in 2028.
“Working with this group, an exciting mix of experience and youth, the ambition is to build upon the medal haul in 2024 and maintain our position as a top-three wheelchair fencing nation. Inevitably standards will improve but we are confident that we have the talent to achieve our goals in LA.”
The University of Bath is home to the Wheelchair Fencing National Training Centre and the base from where Coutya, Gilliver and Lam-Watson have won 20 medals between them at the past three Paralympic Games, as well as multiple World and European titles.
Seddon-Cowell, who combines para fencing with a PhD Research Programme in Mechanical Engineering at the University, only took up the sport three years ago and has been self-funded until now but has already represented Great Britain at the World and European Championships.
The first winner of Team Bath’s new Rengen Athlete of the Month award in January 2025, Seddon-Cowell was among six Brits who competed at the recent Para Fencing World Cup in Pisa, Italy.
Collis won Category A epee silver and sabre bronze, while Lam-Watson was a bronze-medallist in the Category A foil.
Visit teambath.com/fencing to find out more about wheelchair fencing at the University of Bath.
Pictured top: Wheelchair fencer Susie Seddon-Cowell (centre) receiving a certificate from Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley and Performance Sport Officer Sarah Collin after being named as the first winner of the Rengen Athlete of the Month award for University of Bath student-athletes on the Breakthrough Programme.
