Brent Lakatos came to Tokyo to compete in six events. Between heats and finals, he would be on the track almost every day of the 10-day Para athletics program of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Games. On top of that, he was the only Canadian athlete to compete on the last day of competition.
He leaves Tokyo with silver medals in the T54 5,000 metres, T53 400 metres, T53 100 metres and the T53 800 metres.
“The hardest part wasn’t even the races. The hardest part is all the logistics around it – the transport to and from the venue, the call room process, waiting on victory ceremonies, getting home and eating around 10:30 p.m. and trying to get to bed, your heartrate never having the chance to come down because you don’t get the chance to relax until late in the day. The whole process around racing is what makes it so difficult,” said Lakatos.
Today Lakatos raced his sixth and final race of the Games, finishing fourth in the T54 men’s marathon, clocking in with a time of 1:29.18. Far from slowing down after such a busy schedule, Lakatos set a new personal best time for the event.
Marcel Hug of Switzerland and Yong Zhang of China broke away about 10 km into the race. Lakatos would be part of a four-man chase who would jockey for position for the last 30+ km with the hopes of scoring bronze.
“It was physically gruelling. It as also extremely frustrating because no one wanted to work together. I tried to chase down the leaders for the longest time. Then when the two Americans caught me, I asked if they wanted to work together as a pack of four, if we all worked together, we could eat up some of that time,” said Lakatos.
As they approached the last hill with less than 2km to go American Daniel Romanchuk made his move, creating some separation from the pack and taking that last spot on the podium.
“I think I did absolutely everything I could. I knew that hill was going to come at the end and Daniel is the best hill climber in the world and I’m one of the worst hill climbers in that field, being a T53. When the hill came, he used his strength and he was just waiting for that moment, so he was able to open up a gap I couldn’t close,” said Lakatos.
Though he is through racing, Lakatos is not done for the day. He will act as Canada’s flag bearer for the Closing Ceremonies in Tokyo.
