Dimitri Coutya wins fourth successive European epee title as Bath-based GB para fencing squad start Cardiff 2026 with four medals
Paralympic champion Dimitri Coutya provided the home fans with plenty to cheer at the Cardiff 2026 Para Fencing European Championships when he defended his Category B epee title on the first day of individual competition.
It was a fourth successive continental triumph in the epee discipline for Coutya, who trains at the University of Bath, with his last defeat coming in the semi-finals at Torino 2016.
Team-mate Justine Moore also secured her first individual medal at a major championships when she won Category B foil bronze.
Coutya was the dominant force once again in Cardiff, beating Rusian Zimnitski 15-6 and Germany’s Balwinder Cheema 15-9 before overcoming Oleg Sukhoteplyi 15-6 in the semi-finals.
The final against Italy’s Amelio Castro proved to be a tighter affair but Coutya came through with a 15-13 victory to secure his first gold of the week and his third medal in two days.
The first British medals of the championships – both bronze – had come in the new mixed team events staged on the opening day. Coutya, Moore, Piers Gilliver and Gemma Collis were edged out 20-19 by Poland in the mixed team epee semi-finals, while the foil quartet of Coutya, Collis, Moore and Oliver Lam-Watson were defeated 20-18 by Hungary in the last four.
Moore completed her personal hat-trick of medals on Day 2 after reaching the semi-finals of the women’s foil by following up a 15-1 victory over France’s Cecile Demaude with a 15-13 success against Alesia Makrytskaya. Her run was ended by a 15-4 defeat to eventual champion Ionela Mogos of Italy.
Gilliver, Lam-Watson and Joshua Waddell placed seventh, ninth and 14th respectively in the men’s Category A epee, while Collis was seventh in the women’s Category A foil.
The European Championships, the first ranking competition during the LA 2028 Paralympic Games qualification window, continue in Cardiff until Sunday 11th October.
Eight of the 14 athletes representing GB in Wales 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.
