Dorval wheelchair racer wins Berlin Marathon
For more than 41 kilometres of Sunday’s Berlin Marathon, Dorval wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos battled it out in a group of more than a dozen.
Then for the final kilometre, one of the world’s best sprinters drew on his speed.
The 38-year-old captured his first marathon win in Germany, adding the title to the dozens of major victories he owns, in virtually every distance from the 100 metres up.
“I made my move with probably 800 or 900 metres to go and sprinted off then, and I ended up winning by three seconds,” Lakatos said Monday.
“So the sprint work allowed me to open up that small gap just at the end. I never expected to win it, and so it was surprise when I crossed the finish line and nobody passed me just before it. Lots of shock and happiness.”
Lakatos crossed in one hour, 29 minutes and 41 seconds, and only 12 seconds separated the first 10 racers.
His strong finish erased any doubts about racing the marathon at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, which is traditionally on the last day of the Games. But Lakatos isn’t moving up to the marathon, as so many distance racers do.
He’s simply adding it to his repertoire — he’s considering racing at every distance in Tokyo.
“I don’t know at this point, but maybe,” he said. “We have to see the schedule and everything.”
Lakatos has seven Paralympic medals, including gold in the 100 metres at the 2016 Rio Games, and 16 world championship medals.
Racing at so many distances in one Games would be all but impossible for a runner. But the precedent has been set in wheelchair racing — American Tatyana McFadden, Lakatos pointed out, won five medals at the Rio Paralympics, four golds on the track and a silver in the marathon.
“In wheelchair racing, you’re obviously using your arms, which are a much smaller muscle group than legs, and so they recover much faster,” Lakatos explained.
“You can do a heavy load on one day and still have an intense session the next day.”
Lakatos races in the T53 category for athletes with full use of their arms, but limited or no trunk function. He’s been a paraplegic since a skating accident when he was six.
He lives and trains in Loughborough, England, with his wife Stefanie Reid, a Paralympian who competes in sprints and long jump for Britain.