Brent Lakatos earned his second silver medal in as many days, racing in the men’s T53 400-metre final on Sunday morning.
The Dorval, Que. native set a personal and Canadian record time of 46.75 seconds in the competition, after winning the silver in the men’s T54 5,000-metre event the day before.
The medal is Lakatos’ ninth in his Paralympic career, something that once seemed unlikely.
“I didn’t ever think that would really be possible,” he said after the race. “I was considering retiring after Beijing in 2008 and my wife (Paralympic long jumper Stefanie Reid of Great Britain) and I decided to go for one more to try and get one medal.
“That was my goal going into London (2012). I thought I would retire after London. I thought I would retire after Rio (2016). Somehow I’m still here and that number is slowly growing.”
Unlike the 5,000-metre on Saturday, this was a two-man race out of the gate, with Lakatos and Thailand’s Pongsakorn Paeyo separating from the rest of the field in the first 200 metres.
Paeyo would go onto win the race and set a new world record, finishing with a time of 46.61 seconds. Vitalii Gritsenko of the RPC would round out the podium earning the bronze medal.
Lakatos, who was right on Paeyo’s tail during the final stretch, finished with a time faster than the previous world record of 46.82. Despite the accomplishment, he was mildly disappointed after the competition.
“I know I should be happy with the result, and I will be soon. It’s a personal best, a Canadian record. I did it when it mattered the most, and I will be happy with that,” Lakatos said.
“Right now, I’m frustrated because I thought that what I did would be good enough for gold. I really wanted to bring home gold after the silver yesterday and it was just short.”
The 41-year-old still has multiple opportunities to win his second career Paralympic gold, as he’s set to compete in three more events after failing to qualify for the T54 1,500-metre final on Monday morning.
One of those events is the T53 100-metre race, in which Lakatos holds the world record and is the reigning Paralympic champion.