China won three golds at the Wheelchair Fencing World Championships ©IWAS

Piers Gilliver, Britain's Rio 2016 Olympic Games silver medallist, earned his first global gold, at the epee A event at the Wheelchair Fencing World Championships in Cheungju, South Korea. 

His British team mate Dimitri Coutya also won a silver, while it was a day of undoubted success for China. 

World number one Gilliver, 24, from Forest of Dean, who trains at the University of Bath, put everything together in the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation's flagship event, after a season that's included two golds, silver and bronze on the World Cup circuit.

He sealed gold with a 15-9 win over Russia's Artur Yusupov, who finished fourth at the London 2012 Olympics.

China's 2015 epee A world champion Gang Sun, who beat Gilliver 15-13 in the Rio 2016 final, has been a man to watch in 2019, earning multiple World Cup medals in the foil and epee.

But Sun made an early exit, losing his second match 15-14 to Italy's Emanuele Lambertini in the round-of-16.

Gilliver's toughest match came in the semi-final against Sun's compatriot Sai Zhong, whom he beat 15-12.

Coutya narrowly missed making it a British double on the opening day, narrowly failing to defend his foil B title, losing 15-12 to China's Rio 2016 champion Feng Yanke in the final.

Coutya, who will also defend the epee B title in Cheongju, had beaten top seed Hu Dialiang of China, the Rio 2016 silver medallist, 15-10 in the semi-final.

The Briton had left the last World Cup in Poland having beaten Feng and Hu on his way to gold in the foil, but this time the task proved just beyond him.

There was further success for China in the women’s foil A, where Rio 2016 gold medallist Jing Rong secured an overwhelming 15-6 victory over Eva Hajmasi of Hungary in the final.

As in the men's epee A, there was an early shock as Hungary's defending champion, Zsuzsanna Krajnyák, lost 15-10 to Italy's Loredana Trigilia in the round-of-16.

Hong Kong's Yu Chui Yee, a double silver medallist at the Rio 2016 Games, was beaten 15-14 in the quarter-finals by top seed Zou Yufeng of China, who lost her semi-final 15-7 to Hajmasi.

China earned a third gold on the day in the women's epee B as Tan Shumei beat Russia's top seed Ludmila Vasileva 15-11 in the final.

The competition at the Grand Plaza Cheongju Hotel is a key qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.