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He called it his “dream race” and now “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius is one step closer to fulfilling his ambition – to be the first athlete without complete legs to compete in the Olympic Games.
Known as the Blade Runner because of his J-shaped carbon-fibre prosthetic running blades, Oscar captured the world’s attention recently during a race in Lignano, Italy, when he left non-disabled competitors behind him.
The South African Paralympic champion ran the 400 m in a super-fast 45,07 seconds, improving on his personal best time of 45,61 seconds.
In addition this achievement put him well within the qualifying time of 45,25 seconds for next year’s Oympics in London.
American Michael Johnson holds the 400 m world record of 43,18 seconds which he set in August 1999 at the World Championships in Seville, Spain.
The closest anyone has come to this is the 43,45 seconds achieved by American Jeremy Wariner in August 2007 in Osaka, Japan. Oscar has to shave 1,89 seconds off his time to break the world record.
The South African 400 m record of 44,59 seconds is held by Arnaud Malherbe and Hendrick Mokganyetsi.
Read more in YOU 4 August 2011 where we look at whether Oscar’s blades give him an edge.
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