Piers Gilliver takes silver in Rio as Teammates make Quarters

Piers Gilliver took the silver medal yesterday in Rio at the Paralympic Games.  Competing in the Cat A Men’s Individual Epee, Gilliver stormed through the poules stages, winning all five of his fights.

Only eight fencers qualified for the knockout stages and Gillver was ranked second to China’s Sun Gang.  The Brit went on to beat Matteo Betti (ITA) 15-11 and Zainulabdeen Al-Madhkhoori or Iraq, 15-10 to take his place in the gold medal match.

Sun progressed to the final in similar fashion to face Gilliver and the Chinese fencer got the better start.  Gilliver’s tactic of luring his opponent in to the attack had worked well all day but Sun was ready and took an early lead.  Gilliver fought back hard and with both fencers working so hard, the officials had to step in a couple of times to readjust the wheelchair frame – adding to the excitement.  Despite Gilliver’s determined approach, the World Champion and World number one, Sun took the gold medal 15-13.  Tian Jianquan (CHN) took the bronze medal 15-11 from Al-Madhkhoori.

Gemma Collis and Dimitri Coutya were also competing for Great Britain yesterday and made the quarterfinals of their events.  British Fencing congratulates them all.

Gilliver was unavailable for comment as he is fencing again today in the Cat A Men’s Foil Individual event.  Dimitri Coutya will also fence again in the Cat B Men’s Foil Individual.