Gilliver's travels prove fruitful as Coutya strikes again

Piers Gilliver kept his Tokyo 2020 preparations in rude health with gold and bronze at the IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Cup in Poland while Dimitri Coutya added another title to his name.

Gilliver, who won epee A silver at Rio 2016, was in imperious form as he topped the podium with Coutya also taking a second trip to the top of the medal rostrum in Warsaw.

The 23-year-old, who took gold in the same discipline in Pisa, Italy, in March, defeated Russia’s Artur Yusupov 15-11 in a hotly-contested final.

The Gloucestershire native breezed through his group and earned a bye through the round of 64 before then sweeping aside Michal Nalewajek, of Poland, 15-4.

Another Polish fencer, Norbert Calka, awaited him at the next stage but Gilliver triumphed 15-9 before then overcoming China’s Liqiang Chen 15-7 in the quarter-finals.

Gilliver was pitted against Zainulabdeen Al-Madhkhoori, of Iraq, in the semi-finals – a repeat of a last-four showdown between the pair at the last Paralympic Games just under two years ago – and the British ace was victorious again, winning 15-7.

That set up a decisive clash with Yusupov, a test that Gilliver passed with flying colours.

He then followed that up 24 hours later bronze in the men’s sable A event, topping his pool before making it all the way to the semi-final where he was defeated 15-13 by eventual champion Li Hao of China.

Coutya meanwhile backed up his men’s foil gold from Thursday with another victorious showing, this time in the men’s epee B event.

He defeated France’s Yohan Peter 15-9 in the final as Ukraine’s Paralympic champion Anton Datsko had to settle for a share of bronze with Alexander Kuzyukov of Russia.