Brent Lakatos

Brent Lakatos

Lakatos at the 2013 World Championships
Personal information
Birth name	Brent Lakatos
Born	1 June 1980 Dorval, Quebec, Canada
Residence	England, United Kingdom
Sport
Disability class	T53
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Paralympic Games 1 4 1 World Championships 7 2 2 Parapan American Games 3 0 0 Men's paralympic athletics Representing  Canada Paralympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro 100 m T53 2012 London 200 m T53 2012 London 400 m T53 2012 London 800 m T53 2016 Rio de Janeiro 800 m T53 2016 Rio de Janeiro 4 x 400 m T53-54 World Championships 2013 Lyon 100 m T53 2013 Lyon 200 m T53 2013 Lyon 400 m T53 2013 Lyon 4x400 m T53/54 2015 Doha 100 m T53 2015 Doha 200 m T53 2011 Christchurch 200 m T53 2013 Lyon 800 m T53 2015 Doha 400 m T53 2006 Assen 100 m T53 2011 Christchurch 100 m T53 Parapan American Games 2015 Toronto 100 m T53 2015 Toronto 800 m T53 2015 Toronto 400 m T53

Brent Lakatos (born 1 June 1980) is a Canadian wheelchair racer in the T53 classification. Lakatos has represented Canada at three Summer Paralympics, and at the 2012 Games he won three silver medals in the sprint and mid-distance events. In 2013 Lakatos reached the pinnacle of his sport when he collected four gold medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships and became world champion at his classification in the 100m, 200m and 400m events.

Personal history

Lakatos came from a sporting family and was swimming by the age of four. When he was six years-old a freak ice-skating accident resulted in the formation of a blood clot on his spine that left his legs paralyzed.^[1]

Lakatos is married to Great Britain Paralympic sprinter and long jumper, Stefanie Reid and as of 2012 they live together in Britain.^[2][3]

Athletics career

Although Lakatos had taken part in racing events during the summer months since 1996, he did not initially take to athletics and was far more interested in wheelchair basketball, playing for the University of Texas. Eight months before the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Lakatos decided to switch sports permanently to wheelchair racing. At that time Lakatos was competing as a T54 athlete having not yet received an International IPC Classication. In 2004 he finally qualified and was selected for the 2004 Summer Paralympics, this was quite an accomplishment for him in the T54 class, a class he was incorrectly placed in. He raced in the 100m, 200m, 4 × 100 m relay and 4 × 400 m relay, though he failed to qualify for the finals in the solo events and in the relays Canada came fourth in the finals of the 4 × 100 m and were disqualified in the 4 × 400 m.^[4]

Lakatos' career changed when receiving his International IPC Classification at the 2004 Paralympics, he was reclassified as a T53 racer. He now found that instead of struggling to just qualify he was now one of the fastest athletes in his new class and in 2007 he was breaking Canadian wheelchair sprint records.^[5]

Lakatos again qualified for the Canadian team in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. He was entered for the 100m, 200m and 400 m T53 events, and whereas in 2004 he failed to qualify for the finals, he now qualified for all three finals. Despite his best efforts, Lakatos could only finish between 5th and 6th in all three final races.^[4] Lakatos bettered these results when he raced in the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships, finishing third in the 100m and second in the 200m finals.

By 2012 Lakatos was a major challenger for gold medals in his T53 events. In the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London he took three silver medals; in the 200m, 400m and 800m. In the 200m and 400m finals he was beaten by China's Li Huzhao, while in the 800m he was just 11 hundredths of a second behind Richard Colman of Australia.^[4] The next year Lakatos stamped his mark on the international stage when he won five medals, four of them gold at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, becoming world champion in the 100, 200 and 400m.^[6] Then the day after the World Championships he competed in the Sainsbury Anniversary Games in London, setting the World Record in the 100m with a time 14.34s.

References

1. "Brent Lakatos: Biography". paralympians.com. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
2. Kingston, Gary (3 September 2012). "Busy Paralympians Brent Lakatos, Stefanie Reid making marriage work". nationalpost.com. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
3. "About Stef Reid". stefreid.com. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
4. "Brent Lakatos: Athlete profile". paralympic.org. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
5. "Wheelchair racing circuit – Quebec's Brent Lakatos Breaks Three Canadian Records at World Series Event". sirc.ca. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
6. "Brent Lakatos: IPC Biography". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 30 July 2013.

External links

• Results for Brent Lakatos from the International Paralympic Committee