/ 2 June 2008

Pistorius shines in The Netherlands

Wearing his trademark Cheetah blades, South African double-amputee runner Oscar Pistorius won the 100m and 400m races at a Dutch Paralympic meet on Sunday.

Pistorius, who hopes to run the 400m at the Beijing Olympics, won with a time of 47,92 at the Dutch Open, a day after coming first in the 200m. Pistorius must run the 400m in under 45,55 seconds to qualify for Beijing.

Pistorius later won the 100m in 11,48 seconds.

The athlete won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport on May 16 that cleared him to run alongside able-bodied competitors.

After winning the 200m on Saturday in 22,04 — well off his world record best of 21,58 — Pistorius said he was just happy to be back on the track.

”Red track, green grass and blue skies,” Pistorius marvelled.

”Compared to the white walls of the [testing] institute or the dark woods of a courtroom, it is not the same.”

Pistorius plans to participate in an able-bodied race July 2 in Milan, Italy, with possibly two more thrown in before that. The Milan race will be followed by another race in Rome on July 11 and Lucerne, Switzerland, five days later. — Sapa-AP