Countdown to LA 2028 Paralympic Games begins as University of Bath-based para fencers head to Cardiff for European Championships
Para fencers based at the University of Bath will begin their LA 2028 qualification campaign on home soil when they contest the Cardiff 2026 Para Fencing European Championships from 6th to 11th October.
Paralympic gold-medallists Dimitri Coutya and Piers Gilliver are among the 14-strong British Fencing squad selected for the continental competition, which is taking place at the Sport Wales National Centre.
It is the first time Britain has hosted the European Championships since the inaugural event at Sheffield in 2011 and it will be the first ranking competition staged during the LA 2028 Paralympics Games qualification window, which opens on Thursday 1st October and runs until 31st May 2028.
Coutya and Gilliver have enjoyed tremendous success at previous European Championships, winning 23 medals – 15 of them gold – between them. They were joined on the team podium when Paris hosted the last edition in 2024 by Oliver Lam-Watson and Joshua Waddell, both of whom will be competing in Cardiff.
Matthew Clement, James Burke, James Peebles, James Middlehurst and Shah Rashid complete the British men’s squad.
Susie Seddon-Cowell, who combines para fencing with a PhD Research Programme in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, has been selected in the women’s squad alongside four-time Paralympian Gemma Collis, Aimee Aronica, Justine Moore and Emily Holder.
Eight of the 14 athletes are part of the British Fencing World Class Programme and either train full-time or receive additional coaching and sport science support at the Para Fencing National Training Centre, which is based in the Team Bath Sports Training Village – a UK Sport-accredited Elite Training Centre. Visit teambath.com/fencing to find out more.
Pictured top: (From left) Dimitri Coutya, Oliver-Lam Watson, Piers Gilliver and Joshua Waddell celebrate after winning foil team gold at the Paris 2024 European Championships in Paris. PICTURE CREDIT: World Abilitysport/D Echelard.
