Dimitri Coutya: Great Britain wheelchair fencing team target more gold medals

Piers Gilliver (left) and Dimitri Coutya are now able to train at the new purpose-built facilities at Bath University

Triple European champion Dimitri Coutya has said the Great Britain wheelchair fencing team have gone from "strength to strength" this year.

Coutya was part of the GB team that won six gold medals at the European Championships in Warsaw last month.

The 25-year-old won epee and foil gold in the individual B category and was part of the four-man team that won continental epee gold.

Coutya, who trains at Bath University, is now looking to the 2024 Paralympics.

"Paris, I'm aiming for two individual gold medals. Team events are going to be quite tough but I'm aiming for medals in those as well," he told BBC Points West.

"I think Great Britain demonstrated that we're more than capable of doing this in Tokyo in the last Games, and I think this year has just shown that we're going from strength to strength.

"Other countries are trying to do the same thing and everyone's going to be improving towards Paris, but I think it's within our capabilities and means to aim for golds in these.

"It's going to be difficult and it's going to be an ever-changing process, we have to continuously adapt and improve to try and stay on top but I don't think we should be aiming for anything less, really."

Last week Bath University opened its first purpose-built training facility for the wheelchair fencing team, who had previously used various locations around the campus for the past seven years.

"I think it symbolises that the work that we've put in and the consistency that we've put in to earn the right to have somewhere we call home," Coutya said.

Learning a new weapon

Gilliver won his first Paralympic gold medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021

Coutya's team-mate, Piers Gilliver, was the only British wheelchair fencing athlete training in Bath in 2015 when the programme began.

The 28-year-old won Britain's first Paralympic medal in wheelchair fencing in 24 years in Rio in 2016 and became a world champion in 2019.

He then won Paralympic gold in the category A men's epee event in Tokyo last summer.

"My goal is looking ahead to the Paris Paralympics, to defend my epee gold medal title," Gilliver said.

"On top of that, I'm also looking to pursue a medal in sabre as well. I'm fairly new to this weapon so I've still got a lot to learn, but hopefully the centre will really help my training in that.

"We've got the team events which are fairly new but we won two medals in Tokyo and I think we've been able to do so well in a short space of time with the team, so this [facility] will help our training a lot and really help our improvements."

Gilliver said the fact the athletes could tailor the new facilities to suit their needs would have a positive impact on the future growth of the sport.

"It's really fantastic to see the progression, how the sport's grown in the country," he added.

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