Five golds among big European Champs medal haul for Bath-based GB wheelchair fencers in first visit to Paris during Paralympic year
The GB wheelchair fencing squad, based at the University of Bath, enjoyed a successful first visit to Paris this Paralympic year as they won five gold medals at the 2024 European Championships.
Dimitri Coutya and Piers Gilliver claimed two individual titles apiece, the former going mighty close to completing a personal hat-trick, before joining forces with Oliver Lam-Watson and Joshua Waddell to win foil team gold and epee team bronze.
Gemma Collis, who occasionally trains at the Bath-based Wheelchair Fencing National Training Centre in the Team Bath Sports Training Village, also epee silver during an excellent week for the British squad in their final major competition before Paris 2024.
Gilliver secured the first gold of the week, successfully defending his Category A sabre title with a 15-10 victory over Ukraine’s Andrii Demchuk.
Coutya also battled through some hard-fought contests to reach the Category B sabre final but had to settle for silver on this occasion following a 15-7 defeat to Poland’s Adrian Castro.
He avenged that defeat in the foil quarter-finals, beating Castro 15-3 on his way to the final where a 15-10 victory over home favourite Maxime Valet secured Coutya’s first gold of the championships.
His second followed in Saturday’s epee competition, with Coutya again having to overcome French opposition – this time Yohan Peter in the semi-finals – before clinching the gold with a 15-13 success against Russia’s Andrei Pranevich.
Gilliver won by the same scoreline in the Category A epee final, beating Ukraine’s Oleksii Zakusylov to complete his second successful title defence of the week.
The GB squad, coached by Peter Rome, also impressed in the team events with Gilliver, Coutya, Lam-Watson and Waddell winning foil gold after an exciting 45-42 victory over France in the semi-finals and a 45-28 defeat of Italy in the final
Sunday’s epee team competition saw GB narrowly lose 45-43 to Ukraine in the semi-finals but finish strongly with a 45-36 win over France in the bronze-medal match.
Follow Bath-based athletes on their journey to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games at teambath.com/Paris-2024.
