Double amputee Oscar Pistorius qualified on Tuesday for the athletics World Championships in August and could be on his way to the 2012 Olympics in London.
Pistorius clocked a personal best of 45.07 seconds at a 400m race in the northern Italian town of Lignano on the Adriatic Sea. He needed a time of 45.25 to qualify for the worlds for the first time. The championships begin August 27 in Daegu, South Korea.
The time also puts him on track to fulfil his dream of competing at the Olympics. Having achieved the A qualifying time, he now just needs to be selected for the South African team.
Pistorius, known as the Blade Runner, gained international fame when he tried to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. He had to battle a ban by world governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations from competing in able-bodied races after his carbon-fibre blades were deemed an unfair advantage.
He went to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and was cleared in 2008. But the legal process took a toll on training and he didn’t come close to the qualifying time for Beijing.
“I vowed that that would never happen again,” Pistorius recently said while in South Africa.
Pistorius had his lower legs amputated when he was 11-months-old, but has always been involved in sports. He competed in rugby, water polo and tennis. He took up running as part of a rehabilitation program after getting a rugby injury.
Pistorius is the world record-holder in the 100m, 200m and 400m for disabled athletes, and a multiple gold-medal winner at the Paralympics. — Sapa-AP