Attacking mindset guides Dimitri Coutya to wheelchair fencing glory

**Dimitri Coutya imposed his attacking style on the men’s foil field to win gold and claim the ultimate reward for total dedication to the sport of wheelchair fencing. **

The 26-year-old was pitch perfect on the Grand Palais piste, barely giving up a point to his opponents as he matched team-mate Piers Gilliver’s historic epee victory at Tokyo 2020.

Coutya’s aggressive play was no match for Thailand’s Visit Kingmanaw 15-5 in the quarter-finals and Ukraine’s Dmytro Serozhenko 15-4 in the semi-finals.

An almighty test awaited in the final in the shape of four-time gold medallist Yanke Feng of China but the Brit came out firing and emerged 15-7 victor to end a perfect day.

“(Yanke) had perfect distance control, I knew I had to be spot on to set myself up to give myself the right timing to make those hits,” said Coutya of the final.

“I was always looking at where he was to set myself up for the best possible opportunities to score the hits.

“The beauty of fencing is you see personalities reflected in style. He is a very tactical, well rounded fencer. I knew I couldn’t score everything because of how strong he is defensively but I pushed it as much as I could.”

The Londoner was first introduced to wheelchair fencing at primary school and is a true child of London 2012, part of the Paralympic Inspiration programme at those Games.

He made his debut at Rio 2016 and collected team foil silver and team epee bronze in Tokyo.

“It has been something I have dedicated my life to, especially in the last few years,” said Coutya.

“Although Tokyo was a brilliant result and I was really happy considering where I’d come in Rio, I really wanted that gold medal. I have really dedicated the last few years to it.

“There has been a lot of emotional turmoil that went into it so for it to come to fruition, it’s not really sunk in yet.”

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