Coutya brings home fourth medal as wheelchair fencers earn team épée bronze

Dimitri Coutya has spent three years working towards five days in Paris – but it was certainly worth it as he made it four medals in five events in wheelchair fencing.

The individual gold medallist in both the épée and the foil, Coutya joined forces with Oliver Lam-Watson and Piers Gilliver to claim team épée bronze, following the trio’s silver in the team foil.

And after all the work that the 26-year-old has put in since Tokyo, Coutya was thrilled to have made it onto the podium for the fourth time in five days.

He said: “I always find the Games so incredible. Three or four years of your life go into five days of competition.

“It’s horribly gruelling but I’m really proud of what we have all put in. It’s really tough to come away with a Paralympic medal so this is a feat we should all be very proud of. I’m very proud to call these guys my teammates.”

Gilliver was exceptional in the bronze medal clash with Poland, earning 15 points and conceding just three in the 45-28 win.

This medal came fresh from his silver in the individual épée, with the 29-year-old from Gloucester putting that disappointment behind him to help the team cause.

He said: “It has been tough, it was hard to get over the loss yesterday. But that’s the beauty of having a great team like this, we help each other through tough patches and bounce back.”

The trio kicked off their day with a win over host nation France in the quarter-finals, before they were beaten 45-39 by Iraq in the semi-finals.

That left a clash with Poland to earn a medal, with Lam-Watson impressed at the way the team responded to their semi-final disappointment.

He said: “Sometimes we get focused on ‘the only thing is gold’ as we aim for that and when you don’t achieve it, it’s really tough. It was a really tough moment for all of us in different ways. Dimi (Coutya) is doing his fifth day on the trot.

“To lose that (semi-final) fight and then turn it around for the bronze medal fight is really difficult, so I’m really proud of these guys and myself as well. We were all able to go out there and give it everything. In the last fight of the Games for us, that’s all you can ask for.”