Coutya doubles up while Gilliver claims silver

Dimitri Coutya added epee gold to his foil triumph earlier as the wheelchair fencer’s glittering week continued inside the Grand Palais.

The 26-year-old defeated Thailand’s Visit Kingmanaw 15-10 in the gold medal match to secure ParalympicsGB’s 42nd gold medal of Paris 2024, taking them past the 41 secured in Tokyo three years ago.

Coutya was delighted to be the man to secure that milestone as he collected his third medal of the Games overall, having also combined with Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson to earn men’s team foil silver on Thursday.

“I’m so thrilled, it hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “I haven’t had time to process the results from Wednesday or last night.

“It’s testament to the hard work so many people have invested in me. Teammates, support staff, friends and family. There are so many people I can’t even count.

“There are so many people in the crowd here supporting me, they push me to be better and they are a large part of the success I’ve had this week.

“The foil event is my personal favourite but I put a lot of work into epee and it means just as much to me to come away with Paralympic gold.

“I’m very proud to have been able to do that (take the team past Tokyo gold tally). Competing for ParalympicsGB is always such an honour and a privilege and the ethos they provide really helped push me this week.”

Coutya did not have it all his own way through the day and admitted he felt up against it during his opening last 16 clash with American Noah Hanssen before ultimately coming out on top.

He then defeated Italy’s Michele Massa in the quarter-finals and ensured he would leave with another medal when he beat Poland’s Michal Dabrowski 15-13 in a tense last four encounter.

“It’s always a struggle,” he said.

“I was pretty convinced I was going to go out in the first round at one point, I was struggling, I wasn’t really feeling it.

“But I found my form as the day went on and it culminated in a gold medal.”

This is not the end of Coutya’s medal chances in the French capital, with the men’s team epee event taking place on Saturday.

GB open up against host nation France at 11:40 (BST) and Coutya wants to end a memorable week on a high.

“I will need some time to process everything but we still have the team event tomorrow,” he said.

“I just hope we see it off with the same consistency the whole team has been showing this week. Everyone has brilliant and no matter what happens, we should be recognised and proud of the way we fenced.”

In category A of the men’s epee, Gilliver added to his own tally of medals with silver.

The 29-year-old from Gloucester was beaten 15-12 by China’s Sun Gang in the final as Sun, like Coutya, doubled up in the foil and epee.

For Gilliver, it is a second individual silver of the week following his medal of the same colour in the sabre.