Gingras books his ticket to T38 400-metre final

Stepping onto the Paralympic track for the first time, Zach Gingras made it clear that he belongs.  

Gingras finished second in his men’s T38 400-metre heat. His time of 51.81 seconds is a new personal best and booked his spot in the final in Day 5’s evening session on Aug. 31. Tune in to watch him run for a medal at 6:31 a.m. ET on Tuesday. 

“Zachary Gingras ran a well-executed race, setting himself up for the final tomorrow,” said Head Coach Carla Nicholls. “He has shown incredible resilience and maturity this past year. His commitment and preparation alongside his coach, Heather Hennigar, has been nothing short of world-class and it certainly showed today in his race. Although this is Zach’s first Paralympic Games, I have no doubt he will be ready to execute what he has been preparing for the past 18 months.” 

In the first event of Day 4 for the Canadian athletics team, Austin Smeenk took seventh in the men’s T34 100 metres in a time of 15.92 seconds. “I feel like if I had the opportunity to do the race a couple more times, I could definitely get that time down significantly,” said Smeenk. “It’s unfortunate not to have your season’s best on the big stage. I had a poor reaction time off the start, so it’s tough to come back from that.” 

Smeenk will now reset and refocus on the men’s T34 800 metres, which starts with the qualifying heats on Day 8. “I’ll just allow myself to feel this hurt and then get fired up for the 800 metres,” said Smeenk. “I’ll start to prepare for that in a smart and controlled way.” 

Brent Lakatos finished his men’s T54 1,500-metre heat in fifth place in a stacked field. His time of 3:03.72 was not enough to qualify for a spot in the final. 

Jessica Frotten was seventh in her women’s T54 1,500-metre heat in a time of 3:52.23. Her time was not enough to qualify for tomorrow’s final. 

Heading into the second week of competition, Nicholls looks forward to more of the Canadian athletics team getting their first events in, as well as the return of multi-event athletes. 

“Our team has worked hard to prepare for this moment and the next few days will highlight this. Tomorrow will showcase Marissa Papaconstantinou, who races in her first event of the Games. Greg Stewart is on deck, along with the return of Brent Lakatos after a well-deserved break and Charlotte Bolton still has the discus final.” 

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