Canada’s Nate Riech dominates T38 1500m for gold

Nate Riech’s fantastic 2021 season was capped Saturday with a gold medal in the men’s T38 1500m at the Paralympic Games.

The 26-year-old from Victoria went mostly unchallenged in the race, held under wet conditions, clocking a Games record three minutes and 58.92 seconds for Canada’s fifth gold of the Games. 

That was over four seconds ahead of runner-up Abdelkrim Krai of Algeria in second at 4:03.07 while Deon Kenzie of Australia was third in 4:03.76.

Liam Stanley of Victoria notched a personal best 4:06.95 for fifth, which is a Paralympic record for T37 runners. 

Riech burst on the international scene in 2018. A year later he took gold at both the world championships and Parapan American Games. He has been consistently lowering the world record, most recently clocking a 3:47.89 this past May.

Canada now has 21 medals at Tokyo 2020 with five gold, 10 silver and six bronze. It’s an eighth medal in Para athletics which equals the sport’s Rio 2016 total.