Bennett swims to second gold

Canadian wins 200m individual medley days after 1OOm breaststroke

- DONNA SPENCER

The work that produced Nicholas Bennett's first gold medal of the Paralympic Games was the key to his second.

The Canadian surged into the lead on the breaststroke leg of his 200metre individual medley en route to victory Wednesday, and two days after his gold in the 100-metre breaststroke.

The 20-year-old from Parksville, B.C., is the first Canadian man to win multiple Paralympic gold medals in a single meet since Benoit Huot's five in Athens in 2004.

Bennett touched the wall in a Paralympic record time of two minutes 6.05 seconds, which was two and a half seconds faster than silver medallist Rhys Darby of Britain.

"Being seven-hundredths of a second off my world record, it's a success I'll say the least," Bennett said.

He captured his third medal in Paris after taking silver in 200 freestyle.

His roommate in the athletes village captured a silver medal within minutes of Bennett's triumph. Reid Maxwell of St. Albert, Alta., duelled with Alberto Amodeo in the 400metre freestyle and touched the wall six-tenths of a second back of the Italian.