Canada's Lakatos lands 2nd silver medal at Para athletics worlds in Paris

Canada's Brent Lakatos is no stranger to the podium.

But even he may never have experienced a closer call than his latest silver medal, won in the men's T54 1,500-metre wheelchair race at the Para athletics world championships in Paris on Friday.

Lakatos, who's earned 10 career Paralympic medals, snuck into Friday's final by one-hundredth of a second in Thursday's heats, taking the final spot in the slower of the two qualifying races.

And so the Dorval, Que., native knew a change was necessary for the medal race. He said he had as many as nine different plans in mind.

"The plan that fell in was that I was in the pack and it was moving, so then the strategy was to attack with 500 metres to go," he said. "And there was a headwind with 500 metres, so I thought this plan was especially good because most people aren't going to want to get out in the headwind, so I'll get the jump on them and I got lucky and it worked."

WATCH | Lakatos surges to silver medal:

The mid-race decision landed Lakatos in second place, crossing the finish line in two minutes 52.07 seconds — nearly 30 ticks faster than his qualifying time.

Switzerland's Marcel Hug won gold in a championship-record time of 2:51.32, while Thailand's Prawat Wahoram scored bronze at 2:52.18.

Lakatos, 43, now can claim 21 career world championship medals, including 13 gold, six silver and two bronze.

Fellow Canadians Amanda Rummery and Thomas Normandeau will race for medals later Friday in the women's and men's T47 400m at 1:20 and 1:29 p.m. ET, respectively.

WATCH | Lakatos speaks with CBC's Athletics North:

Watch live coverage of the World Para Athletics Championships on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Coverage from Paris continues Thursday at