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Canadian wheelchair racer wins Berlin Marathon

Brent Lakatos, 38, achieves his first marathon win in Berlin, while Manuela Schär of Switzerland sets a new world record

Canadian three-time Paralympian Brent Lakatos won the Berlin marathon yesterday, in 1:29:41. It was Lakatos’s first marathon victory, and it happened on the same day that Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge smashed the world record with his 2:01:39 performance.

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Lakatos beat Swiss racer and defending champion Marcel Hug and JohnBoy Smith of the U.K. (who finished at almost exactly the same time) by three seconds. Canada’s Tristan Smyth finished 10th.

Manuela Schär of Switzerland successfully defended her title and set a new world record in the process with her 1:36:53 finish. American Susannah Scaroni was second, in 1:41:44, and Sandra Graf of Switzerland was third, in 1:42:55.

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Lakatos is 38, and though he’s from Dorval, Que., he currently lives in the U.K. with his wife, British paralympic sprinter and long jumper Stefanie Reid.

Photo: Twitter

Lakatos won four gold medals at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in the T53 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m. This year he has garnered gold in the 800m, silver in the 400m, and bronze in the 5,000m at the Swiss Grand Prix, as well as three medals at the Swiss Open, while setting a Canadian record in the T53 5,000m.

Earlier this year Lakatos was named Athletics Canada’s Athlete of the Year, beating out finalists Melissa Bishop and Mohammed Ahmed for the honour.

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