Oscar Pistorius blazed to his third gold medal of the Paralympics on Tuesday, winning the 400m T44 in a world-record 47,49 seconds.
The most recognisable disabled runner in the world won South Africa’s fourth gold medal of the day, lifting the country’s haul to 21 and sixth place on the medal table.
He is unchallenged over the distance in disabled athletics, and so it was in the Beijing National Stadium, even after a heavy downpour soaked the track.
”I was a bit worried about the rain, because the track becomes quite slippery for guys with prosthetics,” he said.
”But the support for me in the stadium has been unbelievable all week, and when I came off the final bend, I just gave it everything I had,” said Pistorius, who was thrilled at setting the world record, especially after suffering with a cold all week.
Earlier, Fanie van der Merwe’s right leg ”just didn’t want to work” over the last 20m of the men’s 200m T37, but he held on through the discomfort and sprinted to a world-record 23,83 seconds and South Africa’s 20th gold medal.
”I felt as if I was falling,” the cerebral palsied runner said, ”but I went through all the drills I do in training when this happens and I corrected myself.”
It was Van der Merwe’s second gold medal, after he won the 100m, making the 22-year-old one of the success stories of the Paralympics.
”I am grateful I got the world record in the 200, and to get the double is amazing,” he grinned.
Ilse Hayes came into the final of the 100m T13 with the fastest qualifier, but she was up against Sanaa Benhama of Morocco, who had won the 200m so convincingly.
Hayes had a good start in the teeming rain but had no answer to Benhama’s finishing speed, with the Moroccan winning in a world-record-equalling 12,28 seconds to Hayes’s 12,45 for the silver medal.
”I think at the start I was running really fast, but I was conscious of the conditions as the track was really slippery,” she said. ”I ran my season’s best, so I’m incredibly happy. I’ve won two medals — a gold and a silver — so I feel it’s a job well done.”
Jonathan Ntutu managed only an eighth place in his 200m T13 final, which was won in a world-record 21,43 seconds by Ireland’s Jason Smyth. Ntutu clocked 22,85.
Pistorius’s performance capped gold medal-winning efforts earlier in the day by Hilton Langenhoven, who won the 200m T13 in 21,94 seconds, and Fanie Lombard, who won the discus F42 with a 46,75m effort.
In wheelchair basketball’s play-off for ninth place, South Africa lost 68-46 to Brazil, finishing in 10th place. — Sapa