Commonwealth Veteran Huot Earns Third Medal at the Paralympics

LONDON - September 5, 2012 - It was a five-medal day today as Benoit Huot of Montreal collected a third medal at the Paralympic Games, a silver, and Aurélie Rivard of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., added a surprise silver in their respective 400-metre freestyle races on Wednesday in swimming.

The athletics team also earned two silvers today, with Brent Lakatos of Dorval, Que. second in the men's T53 classification wheelchair 800-metres in a personal best time of 1:41.24. Michelle Stilwell of Nanoose Bay, B.C. finished second in the women's T54 wheelchair 100-metres.

Cyclist Marie-Claude Molnar took the bronze medal in the women's C4 category, covering the 16-km course with a time of 26:48.52 to secure third place.

"This is a tough course, so it hurt as it is supposed to," said Molnar. "I was in good hands with my coach who followed me in the car. We had good preparation with good training. I'm really happy with the support that we received throughout the years. These are people who do exceptional work to ensure that we perform to our potential."

In the men's S10 400 IM, 16-year-old Ian Silverman of the U.S., won the gold medal in a Games record 4:04.91. Huot followed in second place in a personal best 4:06.58 thanks to a strong second half while Robert Welbourn of Britain was third in 4:08.18.

At the Games so far, Huot has a collected a medal of each color. He won gold in world record time last Thursday in the 200 IM and bronze Tuesday in the 100 backstroke. He now has 19 Paralympic medals in his career.

''I came here to do best times and I'm three out of three,'' said Huot, competing at his fourth Games. ''I made good decisions coming here deciding not to swim the 50 free and the 100 butterfly because they would have been hard for me to finish in the top-five. So far it's worked. The events I've entered I've been on the podium.''

Issac Bouckley of Whitby, Ont., was eighth.

In women's S10 400 freestyle, Elodie Lorandi of France took the title in 4:34.55, 16-yar-old Rivard lowered her Canadian record to 4:36.46, nine seconds than her previous best set in the morning prelims. Susan Scott of the U.S., was third in 4:37.23.

"I can't believe this has happened," said Rivard, who started swimming competitively only four years ago. "Elodie is always about 10 seconds ahead of me so to cut into her lead and win the silver gives me great pride. My strategy was to save my energy for the end. I gave everything I had in the second half and the last 100 I swam with my heart.''

It's been a great Games debut for Rivard. She was sixth last Thursday in the 200 IM, sixth last Friday in the 50 freestyle and fifth Tuesday in the 100 backstroke, all in personal best times.

She completes her Games Thursday in the 100 freestyle.

In athletics, Lakatos finished second in the men's T53 classification wheelchair 800-metres in a personal best time of 1:41.24.

"This was a little bit of a tactical race but it was also very fast," Lakatos said. "A day's rest was helpful; 800-metres is not my strongest race but I'll take a silver medal any day." He adds, "I'm really looking forward to the 200-metres."

This is Lakatos' second silver medal at these Games, having also placed second in the 400-metres.