8 November 2018

Gold for Gilliver as Coutya claims silver at Wheelchair Fencing World Cup

Rio silver medallist Piers Gilliver made the perfect start to his Tokyo 2020 qualification campaign as he won epee A gold in Georgia, while Dimitri Coutya claimed silver in the epee B.

Gilliver was seeded seventh heading into the first day of competition, winning his first three bouts against lower ranked opposition with relative ease.

But the 24-year-old overcame a stern test in his quarter-final match-up against second seed Arthur Yusupov of Russia, emerging with a 15-7 victory.

From then on, he couldn’t be stopped, beating Roman Fedyaev by the same score before a tightly-fought battle against double world champion Maxim Shaburov in the final, but Gilliver prevailed to claim gold with a 15-12 win.

Elsewhere in the epee A, Oliver Lam-Watson, Joshua Waddell and Matthew Campbell-Hill were defeated earlier in the day’s action.

European Champion and Rio Paralympian Coutya embarked upon a scintillating run to the epee B final but was defeated by Iraq’s Ammar Ali 15-10 in the final.

The number three seed had a bye through to the last 16 where he defeated China’s Hu Daoliang 15-10 before a comprehensive 15-6 triumph over Alexander Kuzyukov in the quarter-final.

Coutya met Brazilian Jovane Guissone – gold medallist in the discipline at London 2012 - in the last four, but another comfortable win, this time 15-9, set up a tantalising final with Ali.

But the Brit had to settle for silver, with 2015 world champion Ali faultless on the day.

Elsewhere, in the women’s epee A Gemma Collis-McCann was defeated in the last 32.

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