Piers Gilliver bags gold and silver as his run of Wheelchair Fencing World Cup success continues in Pisa

24 March 2019

University of Bath-based Piers Gilliver struck gold at a fourth successive IWASF Wheelchair Fencing World Cup as he and fellow Brit Dimitri Coutya brought home a medal of each colour between them from Pisa, Italy.

Unlike the three previous tournaments where he won Category A Epee gold, Gilliver’s latest success came in the Sabre as the MJ Church Ambassador demonstrated his world-class ability across different disciplines.

Gilliver won all the bouts in his group to top the qualification standings, then continued his impressive form into the knockout stages as he beat Italy’s Alberto Morelli 15-1 before dispatching French duo Ludovic Lemoine and Romain Noble 15-5.

Just four hits were conceded in a one-sided semi-final against Italy’s Edoardo Giordan before Gilliver wrapped up an excellent gold-medal success by beating Ukraine’s Andrii Demchuk 15-12.

He wasn’t quite able to match that achievement in the epee competition but went mighty close, only being edged out 15-14 by Russia’s Maxim Shaburov in a fantastic final having overcome China’s Liqiang Chen by the same scoreline in the last four.

Coutya – who, like Gilliver, is coached by Peter Rome at the Sports Training Village – was also on the podium in the Category B Epee competition as he bagged a bronze medal.

He topped the qualification rankings and defeated Japan’s Michinobu Fujita 15-7 and Anton Datsko of Ukraine 15-10 before being edged out 15-14 by France’s Marc An Cratere in an evenly-matched semi-final.

Coutya also finished fifth in the Category B Foil as the qualification period for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games continued.

Find out more about fencing at the University of Bath by clicking here.

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