GB's Coutya wins Paralympic gold in wheelchair fencing

Dimitri Coutya’s gold is an upgrade on the bronze he won in Tokyo

Great Britain’s Dimitri Coutya has won his first Paralympic wheelchair fencing gold in the men’s foil B category.

The world number one breathed a huge sigh of relief after overpowering China's two-time defending Paralympic champion Feng Yanke 15-7 at the Grand Palais.

The 26-year-old had dominated the contest from the start, quickly moving 8-4 ahead before running away with it to close out an eight-point victory.

On his way to the final, Coutya had also comfortably beaten Ukraine’s Dmytro Serozhenko 15-4 in the semi-final and Thailand’s Visit Kingmanaw 15-5 in the quarter-final.

The wheelchair fencer's Paralympic gold is an upgrade on the bronze he won in the same event in Tokyo three years ago and will add to the European titles in both foil and epee B events he secured in March and in 2022.

"It hasn't really sunk in. I'm just about managing to breathe at the moment," Coutya said after the contest.

"It's something I've wanted for so long, and I've been working for so many years now.

"After the disappointment in Tokyo, I was very happy with the result [bronze] considering where I was, but I really wanted that gold and it's something that I've dedicated my life to for the last few years.

"I haven't really started to process it."

On his tactics against Feng, Coutya, who trains at the University of Bath, added: "I knew that if I actually wanted to win a Paralympic gold medal I would have to beat him.

"He's on his best form, so I told myself to get into the best possible mindset and take that all the way through. And that's what happened in the match."

Coutya, who is also world number one in epee category B, will target further gold medals in the men’s team foil quarter-final on Thursday (11:40 BST), the individual epee B category on Friday (08:40) and team epee quarter-final on Saturday (11:40).

Lam Watson narrowly loses contest

Coutya was one of two British athletes in action in the men's foil category B, with Oliver Lam Watson narrowly losing his third-round repechage contest against Hungary’s Richard Osvath 14-15.

“I had an awful start to be honest with you,” said the 31-year-old, who won team foil silver and team epee bronze in Tokyo.

“It was my first individual time on piste at a Games and I think the crowd, the energy, the noise got the better of me a little bit. I’m really pleased to make it so deep into the repechage.

“Richie [Richard Osvath] is a brilliant fencer. I started my journey into wheelchair fencing by googling these guys and watching them on YouTube so it’s a real honour to fence against them. To push him to 14-14, it makes me proud, I’m happy with that.”