Oscar no slouch as he wins 100m final

By Paul Carter

South African superstar Oscar Pistorius has won his first gold medal of this year’s Paralympics, in his weakest of the three events in which he is competing.

The 21-year-old lined up in the T44 100m against the reigning champion, Marlon Shirley from the USA, in what was billed as one of the biggest showdowns in Paralympic history.

However, it did not quite live up to the pre-race hype, as the American pulled up in agony around the 70m mark, before tumbling to the floor.

Pistorius, nicknamed “the blade runner”, never gets a good start as, unlike his competitors, he lacks lower legs to push out of the blocks - but even by his standards his start was appalling and his race looked over before it had begun.

However, with just 40m left and track seemingly running out, he showed his class and power and blasted through the field from sixth position to take gold on the line from Jerome Singleton in a time of 11.17.

“My start was just shocking. I ran better yesterday than I did today,” he said.

“This title’s probably one of the most amazing titles I’ve ever had. The fastest in the world is obviously the 100m, and it was the one I was most worried about, so I was very happy I was able to sneak in there at the end.”

He also had kind words for his great rival Marlon Shirley, after their much-talked-about confrontation failed to go the distance.

“It’s a shame. He has been injured a lot this last season. At the end of the day, this is where it needs to come together for an athlete and unfortunately it wasn’t his day. He’s a great athlete. This was his title for two Paralympics in a row and I’m glad I was able to take it.”

Pistorius will now be looking to become one of the individual stars of the Beijing Games, as he goes for gold in his stronger events, the 200m and 400m, the latter being the distance at which he came close to qualifying for the South African Olympic squad after a long-running battle with the authorities.