Oscar Pistorius, the amputee sprinter who runs with the aid of carbon-fibre prosthetic legs, has failed in his bid to qualify for this summer鈥檚 Olympics in Beijing, after South Africa鈥檚 athletics federation left his name off its 1600-metre relay team today.
On Wednesday, the athlete, nicknamed the 鈥淏lade Runner鈥�, ran his best ever 400-metre time, but his 46.25 seconds was over the 45.55 second maximum needed to qualify for Beijing. The world record, held by American Michael Johnson, stands at 43.18 seconds.
His failure to qualify, though not surprising, marks a turn of events. In May, the Court of Arbitration for Sport repudiated a previous judgement by International Association of Athletic Federations that Pistorius鈥� carbon-fibre blades 鈥� called Cheetahs 鈥� offered an unfair advantage over able-bodied sprinters, calling into question the validity of previous tests.
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An analysis led by biomechanist , of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and other scientists determined that Pistorius ran no more efficiently than other elite athletes and previous claims that his Cheetahs returned extra energy could not be proven.
But the legal battle may have taken its toll on Pistorius. 鈥淭he poor guy鈥檚 been fighting this for six month instead of training,鈥� Weyand told New 杏吧原创 after the tests results were announced.
However, Pistorius says he is happy with his season鈥檚 achievements despite missing out. He now plans to work towards qualifying for the 2012 Olympics in London.
