As well as taking the title in his specialist epee discipline, the weapon he won silver with at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Gilliver also struck gold on his international sabre debut.

Gilliver, a sporting ambassador for Team Bath partners MJ Church, won four of his five poule contests in Friday’s sabre competition to earn a bye to the last 16.

He then overcame Poland’s Rafal Ziomek 15-4 and Ukrainian duo Vol Holovashchenko and Artem Manko, 15-11 and 15-9 respectively, to reach the final, where a 15-9 win over Ukraine’s Andrii Demchuk secured gold.

Gilliver continued his fantastic form on Sunday, winning all five of his epee poule bouts to progress to the last 16 as the top-ranked qualifier.

After brushing aside Brazil’s Sandro Colaco 15-1, he beat Robert Citerne of France 15-10 before racing to another 15-1 victory in the semi-finals, this time against Dariusz Pender of Poland.

Italy’s Matteo Betti awaited in the final but Gilliver was in peerless form again as he won 15-3 to clinch a second gold in three days.

Gilliver, whose lead coach is Peter Rome, has been based at the Sports Training Village for the past two years, sparring with the Pentathlon GB squad and Bath Sword Club in the fencing salle.

Report courtesy of the University of Bath Press Office via Matchtight Ltd.

The 21-year-old has enjoyed tremendous success during the past two years, winning nine medals in 12 international competitions – including three back-to-back World Cup titles – to comfortably finish top of the epee qualifying rankings.

“I am so happy to be part of the ParalympicsGB team for Rio 2016,” said Gilliver, who is joined in the wheelchair fencing squad by Dimitri Coutya.

“Many years of hard work has gone towards achieving this goal and I’m pleased that all the hours of training have paid off.

“I’m going to make every second count before I head out to compete in Rio as it’s going to be the biggest competition of my career so far. I hope the nation will supercharge the team to personal best performances – their support will make all the difference.”

Gilliver, whose lead coach is Peter Rome, started training full-time at the Sports Training Village in April 2015 after receiving funding from UK Sport’s World Class Programme.

He has sparring sessions with Bath Sword Club and also trains with the Pentathlon GB athletes as they prepare for this summer’s Olympic Games.

“I definitely feel I am learning a lot from them,” Gilliver added. “It’s great sparring but it’s also a great atmosphere being part of this elite group. We are all working together towards the same goal – that gold medal in Rio.”

Gilliver, from the Forest of Dean, is the second University-based sportsman to be officially selected by ParalympicsGB for this summer’s Games and joins athletics World Champion Paul Blake, coached by Rob Ellchuk, in the Rio squad.

Stephen Baddeley, Director of Sport at the University of Bath, said: “Congratulations to Piers on this fantastic achievement. He has been top of the world rankings throughout his time here, so it is great he can finally say he has been officially selected.

“Piers has quickly become a popular member of the Team Bath family and we will all be cheering him on as he goes for gold in Rio.”

University of Bath graduates Alexandra Rickham and Louise Hunt have been selected for the Rio Paralympic Games in sailing and wheelchair tennis respectively.

Report courtesy of the Team Bath Press Office via Matchtight

The 21-year-old won a silver medal at the IWAS European Championships in Torino, Italy on Thursday to confirm his status as the top epee fencer during the two-year qualification period.

It was Gilliver’s ninth medal in 12 ranking competitions since September 2014 and his third podium finish during 2016, following on from World Cup silver in Hungary and bronze in Canada.

Gilliver was ninth at the last European Championships in 2014 but has been in excellent form since then and went into the competition as the number one seed.

He retained that status after winning all six of his poule bouts, which earned him a bye into the last 16.

A 15-7 victory over Germany’s Maurice Schmidt and 15-5 win against Robert Citerne against France put Gilliver into the semi-finals, where he again impressed by beating Russia’s Viktor Dronov 15-6.

The final against number two seed Maxim Shaburov proved to be close fought but it was the Russian who took the gold medal with a 15-12 win.

The Rio 2016 qualification period finishes after next week’s American Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The ParalympicsGB wheelchair fencing team for Rio will then be officially announced.

Gilliver, whose lead coach is Peter Rome, has been training at the University of Bath for the past year and works with the Pentathlon GB athletes training towards next week’s World Championships and this summer’s Olympic Games.

Report courtesy of Team Bath Press Office at Matchtight Ltd

Piers Gilliver (Photo: Sam Farr for Mathchtight)

Epee bronze in Laval maintained the 21-year-old’s ranking as number one in the world and all but wrapped up qualification for Rio with just two tournaments – the European and American Championships – to go.

Gilliver, who went into his latest competition as the top seed, won all five of his poule bouts to progress directly to the last 16.

A 15-5 victory over Poland’s Rafal Ziomek set up a quarter-final against former European Champion Roman Fedyaev, which Gilliver won 15-12.

His run came to an end in the last four as he was edged out 15-12 by China’s Sun Gang, who had also beaten Gilliver when they met in last year’s World Championships final.

Gilliver, whose lead coach is Peter Rome, is next in action at the European Championships in Torino, Italy on May 17.

Report courtesy of Team Bath Press Office at Matchtight Ltd.