Canadian runner Nate Tucker won his signature event in record-setting fashion at the Para athletics world championships on Sunday in New Delhi.
The Victoria native broke his own championship record in the men’s 1,500-metre T38 final with a time of three minutes 57.98 seconds, earning his third world title in the event.
The 2021 Paralympic champion saved his best for last in India, biding his time near the front before shifting gears to take the lead on the final lap. Tucker shaved 3.9 seconds off his previous record from his gold-medal run at his first world championships six years ago in Dubai.
Tunisia’s Amen Allah Tissaoui (3:58.17) took silver just ahead of Australia’s Angus Hincksman (3:58.19).
The 30-year-old Tucker, who previously went by the last name Riech, also won the 1,500 world title in 2023 in Paris before taking silver at the Paris Paralympics in 2024.
3:57.98 was Nate Tucker of Victoria, B.C.’s gold medal winning time Sunday at the World Para Athletics Championships in the 1500-metre T38 final.
Tucker wasn’t the only Canadian to reach the podium on the final day of competition at the world championships, as sprinter Marissa Papaconstantinou and wheelchair racer Austin Smeenk captured silver and bronze, respectively.
Toronto’s Papaconstantinou won her first career world silver medal in the final event of the day, and said she entered the race at less than full health.
The 25-year-old finished second in the the women’s 200 T64 final with a time of 27.07, 0.9 seconds behind Marlene van Gansewinkel of the Netherlands. American Sydney Barta took bronze in 27.51.
“I’m elated. I finally upgrade from bronze,” she told Athletics Canada in reference to her 2023 world bronze and third-place finish earlier this week in the 100. “I didn’t love the [finishing] time but it doesn’t matter. When you’re in championship racing, it’s a matter of fighting to the finish and I think I did that.”
Papaconstantinou admitted to “hitting a wall” at the end of the race, with the hot weather challenging to overcome.
“It’s tough waiting it out [in the hotel] all day to get to the track and get your warmup in and to do your race,” she said. “But it’s cool to close out the championship, and think I did on a pretty good note.”
Canada finished with nine medals (three gold, silver and five bronze).
Wheelchair racer Austin Smeenk of Oakville, Ont., finishes third in the men’s 800-metre T34 final at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi with a time of time of 1:40.50. Smeenk also captured a bronze medal on Monday in the men’s 400-metre T34 final.
Smeenk finished third in the men’s 800 T34 event earlier in the day at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
The 27-year-old from Oakville, Ont., crossed the finish line in 1:40.50 for his second bronze medal in New Delhi.
Smeenk, the reigning Paralympic champion and world record holder in the event, finished just behind China’s Wang Yang (1:40.24) and Thailand’s Chaiwat Rattana (1:40.37).
Smeenk also finished third in the men’s 400 T34 final last Monday.
27.07 was Marissa Papaconstantinou’s silver medal time in the 200-metre T64 final Sunday at the World Para Athletics Championships.
