Ealing student Dimitri Coutya is all but on the plane to the Rio Paralympics after winning fabulous silver and bronze medals at the wheelchair fencing European Championships.

The sixth former at St Benedict’s School, dug deep in Turin after coming through the foil ‘poules’, group stages, where he ranked seventh out of 17.

It gave him less favourable seeding in the knock-out stages forcing him to live on his nerves and record wins over Alessio Sarri of Italy, 15-14 and Anton Datsko from Ukraine by 15-13.

In the semi-final Marco Cima from Italy provided stiff opposition before Coutya won 15-14. But the final against Maxime Valet proved a step too far and the Frenchman triumphed 15-11.

In the epee division, Coutya ranked third after the poules in a slightly bigger field of 22.

He recorded victories over Poland’s Grzegorz Lewonowski and Alexander Kuzyukov of Russia by 15-11 before going down in the semi-final 10-15 to Yannick Ifebe of France who went on to win gold.

No top of the tree for the 18-year-old, but a feeling of elation nonetheless.

“It’s something I have been training for and dreaming of for years. I am very happy and really looking forward to the rest of the journey,” he said.

Denis Cranwell, Head of Fencing at St Benedict’s was optimistic saying: “He has a real chance of a medal.”

Double quick: St Benedict's cricketers, Tomek Tsang (L) and Charlie Pyne

 Elsewhere at St Benedict’s, two Saints each achieved the rare feat of centuries in the same inter-school cricket match.

Charlie Pyne and Tomek Tsang combined in a partnership of 204 runs in the school’s U15 match against Mill Hill.

Dicky Thomas, Head of Co-curricular Activities said that in his 34 years at the school there has only been one other like it – and that was back in the 1980s.

Pyne ended on 113 not out while Tsang hit 103, setting Mill Hill a target of 278 runs. Excellent bowling from Tom Knight (4-6) saw Mill Hill all out for 69.

St Benedict’s cricketers have hit five tons in total so far.

Conor Moon hit 110 not out for the U15B team on the first day of their season. Dom Taylor scored 103 not out off just 59 balls for the U13 A team against Fulham Boys.

Two days later Ben Page hit a 36-ball hundred, including 16 fours and five sixes for the U13 B team against John Lyon.

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