Nicholas Bennett swims to Canada's 1st gold at Paris Paralympics in SB14 100m breaststroke
CBC
Canadian swimmer Nicholas Bennett captured the country's first gold medal at the Paris Paralympics on Monday in the men's SB14 100-metre breaststroke.
The 20-year-old clocked a time of one minute 3.98 seconds at Paris La Défense Arena.
It's Bennett's second medal of these Games after winning silver on Saturday in the men's S14 200m freestyle final.
"It's still hard to believe. Doing amazing in front of all of these people, it's just hard to describe how I'm feeling right now," Bennett told CBC Sports' Benoît Huot poolside after the race.
Bennett, who lives with autism, was born in Parksville, B.C., but now lives and trains in Red Deer, Alta.
WATCH | Bennett wins gold medal:
Having posted the fourth-fastest qualifying time, the Canadian appeared to be in tough racing out of Lane 6, two over from world-record holder Naohide Yamaguchi of Japan.
And at the halfway point, things seemed to be playing out as expected as Yamaguchi touched the 50-metre mark first with Bennett more than a half-second behind.
But Bennett had more left in the tank. He made his move over the final 30 metres, and by the time he touched the 100-metre mark, he was comfortably in first place.
"It's amazing. I saw Yamaguchi ahead, I just had to get him," Bennett said.
Yamaguchi fell to the bronze-medal position in 1:04.94, while Australian Jake Michel set an Oceania-record time of 1:04.27 to snag silver.
WATCH | Bennett reacts to victory:
Bennett said he felt as though he might have taken qualifying a bit too lightly — but the strategy paid off.
"Compared to this morning, I took it way too easy. But it allowed be to come back even harder tonight," he told Huot.
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