Just over 24 hours after failing in his bid to win the sabre event in the men's wheelchair fencing, Dimitri Coutya claimed the Paralympic gold medal for Britain in the foil with a dominant display over Yanke Feng from China.
Coutya secured his first Paralympic crown 15-7. His success in category B for fencers whose coordination is affected in the trunk and leg followed powerful displays throughout the sessions at the Grand Palais in central Paris.
"It has been a tough day emotionally and mentally," said the 26-year-old who won bronze in the foil in a five medal haul in Tokyo in 2021 and also competed at the Rio Paralympics in 2016. "But that's always the case with the Paralympic Games.
"The environment is incredibly stressful so handling that and being as consistent as possible was the biggest challenge. But I feel I handled it well enough."
Coutya, who sustained a spinal injury at the age of two after being knocked over by a car, initially played wheelchair basketball but switched to fencing in 2009 when he was 11.
Chance
Medal-winning performances at the UK School Games brought him to the attention of coaches in the British paralympics committee and an invitation to train with the squad competing at the Paralympic Games in 2012.
He attended the event in London as part of a programme aimed at inspiring potential Paralympians.
Moments after his victory, Coutya hailed the scheme. "It was an invaluable experience for me because it gave me a real taste of one of the most incredible Olympic and Paralympic Games. It was really brilliant."
Just over a decade on from that first contact, Coutya entered the Paris Paralympics as the reigning European champion in the epée and foil events.
His bid as the first man from Britain to pull of a triple crown of sabre, foil and epée ended early.
He went down to Dmytro Serozhenko in the sabre event on Tuesday in round three of the repechage.
But on Wednesday in the foil, after sweeping past Visit Kingmanaw from Thailand in the quarter-finals, he exacted revenge on Serozhenko in the semi-final. Coutya outlcassed the 34-year-old Ukraininan 15-4.
Dominant
In the final against Feng, Coutya surged into a 5-1 lead. Feng briefly threatened a revival but from 8-5, three consecutive points effectively killed off Feng's challenge and Coutya surged on to glory.
"I told myself not to get too excited just because I was one or two hits away," Coutya said.
"Because that's when people really, really mess it up."
Coutya will return to the Grand Palais on Thursday for the men's team foil competition before taking part in the individual epée on Friday and the team epée on Saturday.
Thai fencer Jana Saysunee took the category B women's foil for her second gold of the Games.
The 50-year-old year old, who won gold in Athens in 2004 in the category, saw off Rong Xiao from China 15-11 a day after she beat the same opponent to brandish gold in the women's individual sabre.
China was supreme with the foil in category A - the class for fencers with good trunk control.
Gang Sun annihilated the Italian Matteo Beo 15-3 to retain the men's gold and Xufeng Zou won the battle of his female compatriots.
Zou overcame Haiyan Gu 15-12.
