Tokyo Paralympics 2021 – Team GB’s Piers Gilliver takes wheelchair fencing gold to surpass Rio silver
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Published 26/08/2021 at 12:57 GMT
Gilliver won silver at Rio in 2016, but went one better with a 15-9 victory over the Russian Paralympic Committee's (RPC) Maxim Shaburov. The Brit had gone out in the round of sixteen of the sabre event yesterday, but rallied to beat the RPC fencer with a superb performance. Teammate Dimitri Coutya picked up a bronze in the epee B event.
Piers Gilliver of Team Great Britain clebrates after winning the Men's Épée Individual Category A Gold Medal against Maxim Shaburov of Team RPC on day 2 of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games
Image credit: Getty Images
Piers Gilliver went one better than his silver in Rio 2016 as he won gold in the men’s wheelchair fencing class A epee.
The Brit conquered Maxim Shaburov of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) 15-9 to take GB’s Tokyo Paralympics gold medal tally to six.
A strong start from his RPC opponent made for a gruelling start to the bout for Gilliver, but the Bath-based fencer rallied to win the contest.
Yesterday, the 26-year-old suffered a disappointing round of 16 exit from the sabre event, falling to China’s Li Hao.
Prophetically, Gilliver admitted after the loss that the epee was likely to reap more success.
“Now I must put it behind me and get focused on tomorrow as the epee is my stronger event,” he said.
“I am confident I can put in a good performance.”
There was more joy in the fencing for Team GB to come, as Gilliver’s compatriot Dimitri Coutya won bronze in the epee B event.
The 23-year-old, a three-time World Champion, won his first Paralympic medal with a tense 15-11 triumph over Andrei Pranevich of Belarus.
It was an extremely close match well into the closing stages, before Coutya’s strong finish secured another British medal.
Team GB’s success in the fencing was replicated in the velodrome, pool and equestrian park on a fantastic day’s work for the Brits.
Jaco van Gass and Fin Graham kickstarted a GB medal rush with a superb one-two in the men’s C3 3000m individual pursuit.
Velodrome joy was followed up by a stunning twelfth para-equestrian gold in the individual dressage for Lee Pearson, with teammate Georgia Wilson taking bronze.
Pearson’s victory atop Breezer took him third in the all-time British gold medal list, pulling ahead of David Roberts and Tanni Grey-Thompson.
The Tokyo Aquatics Centre proved the most fertile ground for GB glory though, as Maisie Summers-Newton and Tully Kearney each broke world records en route to gold in the 200m and 100m freestyle medley respectively.
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