Luca Ekler won a silver medal with a European record in the 400-meter flat race final at the Paris Paralympics on Saturday evening. The Hungarian athlete interested in the T38 category – who won a gold medal in the long jump and was fifth in the 100 meters – won his preliminaries on Friday with a time of 1:10.02 minutes and entered the finals in third place overall.
The 25-year-old TFSE athlete won the World Championship in this event last year right here in Paris (in another stadium), and now he ran on track 5 in the once again sold-out Stade de France. Since there was also a French competitor in the field, the arena almost exploded at the start, the participants could start the one-lap distance in a truly inspiring environment.
Luca Ekler started tactically, he was only fourth-fifth at the half-distance, and then in the second 200 meters he had a huge hairline and only the Colombian Karen Tatiana Palomeque Moreno, who improved her own world record, was faster than him. The South American won with 58.67 seconds, Luca Ekler’s new personal best and also his European record of 59.35. By the way, this is five centuries better than his rival’s previous world record.
– It was a very good race, the end hurt a bit, but I think that after five hours of sleep it was a very good run. My result is also within the previous world record and you could already see yesterday that the Colombians probably cannot be beaten. I went into it thinking that I wanted to give everything, I wanted to leave everything on the track, and I hoped that this would be enough for a medal. I am very happy. – assessed the Hungarian athlete in the mixed zone. – In the first two hundred, I tried to run smart, not to run away, because my second two hundred is stronger and I wanted to reserve it. Of course I wanted to win, but I think I can’t be dissatisfied, in fact, I’m very happy.”
The competitor revealed that his friend was also standing in the stands at the last fifty meters, and this gave him great strength.
The season is not over for Luca Ekler, next week he will participate in the team championship for TFSE, and then he will participate with Ilona Biacsi in the Diamond League finals in Brussels, where a para race will also be held. Biacsi will compete in 400 meters, and Ekler will be his coach and companion.
Luca Ekler won the 15th medal of the Hungarian delegation in Paris, the balance is now 5 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze.
The Hungarian athlete suffered a stroke in 2009, as a result of which his left side became paralyzed, but as a result of physiotherapy and physiotherapy treatment, now only visible symptoms remain on his left hand.
Luca Ekler defended his title, winning a gold medal in the long jump at the Paris Paralympics
Source: nepszava.hu
