Justine Moore and Britain’s para fencing stars believe their battling bronze medals can lay the foundations for a memorable week at the European Championships. Longsight’s Moore, 34, was part of the mixed epee and foil teams who claimed a pair of podium finishes on the opening day of competition in Cardiff.
Team effort secures double bronze
Moore combined with Piers Gilliver, Dimitri Coutya and Gemma Collis in the mixed epee event to beat Italy in a bout for bronze and bounce back from their semi-final defeat against Poland. And just a couple of hours later, Moore, Coutya, Collis and Oliver Lam-Watson joined forces to beat France to the final place on the podium after a last four defeat to Hungary.
Paralympian Moore, who competed at London 2012, goes again in her individual events throughout the week and hopes to continue the momentum in what marks the maiden European-based qualification event for the LA2028 Paralympic Games.
Athletes reflect on strong start
“I’m really happy with how we all performed as a team,” she said. “It’s a great start for us all – we all did well in each match. I feel prepared, focused and I’m going to give it my all to do really well for the rest of the week.”
Double Paris Paralympic champion Coutya, 28, said: “It was a really good team effort from us today. I’m really proud of how everyone fenced. We put in a lot of work for this over the summer, so to come home with a bronze on home soil is really great. Doing two events back-to-back is mentally really tough. Even though they’re shorter, condensed versions, it’s a big ask of everyone. But I’m proud of everyone the way they handled it, so it’s more positives for the rest of the week.”
Home soil success in Cardiff
Ukraine beat Poland to claim the opening gold up for grabs at the Sport Wales National Centre, which is hosting the first European Championships to be held in the UK since Sheffield 15 years ago. Gilliver fenced the final epee bout against the Italians in the Welsh capital and hauled Britain over the line to claim his tenth overall European medal.
And with Lam-Watson in for Gilliver for the foil event in the afternoon, the home quartet emulated those exploits to topple France as Italy grabbed gold ahead of Hungary. Four-time Paralympic medallist Lam-Watson, 33, said: “We’ve got a long way to climb but we’ve got the experience there to do so. We made the best of a difficult situation – next time hopefully we’ll be back stronger.”
Four-time Paralympian Collis, 33, added: “Another bronze medal is a great way to start the week. I think we wanted slightly more if I’m honest, but it was a great team performance.”
The Para Fencing European Championships, supported by funding from UK Sport through The National Lottery, and Welsh Government, is being held in Cardiff on the 6th-11th October 2026, seeing athletes from across Europe compete in the first qualification event for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games.
