Oscar Pistorius, the four-time Paralympic gold medallist, broke a world record at Crystal Palace yesterday and then announced that he expects to compete at the Commonwealth Games in October and become the first disabled track star to do so at an able-bodied Games.
The South African, known as the "Blade Runner" because of his blade-style prosthetics attached from his knees down, lowered his own T44 400 metres world record from 47.76 seconds to 47.04 seconds in cold conditions in South London but this is still a second slower than his best time of 46.02 seconds achieved last month in Italy in an able-bodied race, hence the 47.04 seconds standing as a T44 world record. This means that Pistorius is seven hundredths of a second outside the 45.95 second mark set by South Africa for an individual to compete in the 400 metres at the Delhi Games in seven weeks' time.
Pistorius plans to run in Berlin next time where he hopes to meet the South African mark. "It's my last shot at it for this season, but I'm confident," he says. "If I fall, even by one hundredth of a second, then I will not expect any dispensations at all because I want to be considered as a normal athlete." However, as he is the second fastest400 metre runner in South Africa, able-bodied or not, he expects to be a part of the 4 x 400 metres relay squad at the very least.
"I can't see any reason why I won't be picked for the relay squad as I am the secondfastest in my country," he confirms. "I'd probably start the race as I wouldn't want to cause any problems in the mayhem that follows each leg with the handovers. For everyone's peace of mind that would be best, but I'm still hoping to make it in the individual 400 metres as well.
"Whatever the case to compete in Delhi in what will be my first able-bodied Games will be very big for me. It's been a long battle to gain acceptance by everyone in athletics and to get to the Commonwealth Games will be a major step forward for all of us who wanted to be seen as athletes, not paralympic or disabled athletes."
