The eight fastest amputee sprinters line up on Thursday for the showpiece T44 100m final at the London Paralympics, amid predictions that all finallists could run under 11sec for the first time. The favourite for the title currently held by South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius is Britain’s Jonnie Peacock, who earlier this year lowered the single below-the-knee leg amputee world record to 10.85sec. The 19-year-old fired a warning shot to his rivals on Thursday night, winning his heat and equalling the Paralympic record set eight years ago 11.08sec — then warned that he would run faster. “It was a bad (head) wind, a big wind: 1.6m/sec. I’ll be a bit quicker in the final,” he told reporters at a cold and blustery Olympic Stadium in London. South Africa’s Pistorius was second-fastest after running a season’s best 11.18sec, with compatriot Arnu Fourie third quickest (11.29sec) followed by the United States’ Richard Browne (11.33sec) and team-mate Blake Leeper (11.34sec).
Jerome Singleton, silver medallist in Beijing, was slowest of the automatic qualifiers with 11.46sec. The two fastest loser spots went to Alan Oliveira of Brazil (11.56sec) and China’s Lui Zhiming, whose 11.84sec was a new Asian record. Oliveira, 20, pulled off a shock victory over defending champion Pistorius in the 200m on Sunday but has played down his chances in the straight sprint, as has Pistorius. “It’s not really my event,” Pistorius said last week. “As Jonnie (Peacock) and those guys focus on the 100, my focus is on the 400, on the complete opposite side of the spectrum when it comes to sprinting,” he said.
US sprinter backs Pistorius blade rule review: US sprinter Jerome Singleton on Wednesday backed calls by Oscar Pistorius for a review of runners’ artificial running prostheses after the South African claimed he was at a disadvantage over blade length. The 26-year-old also said he believed that the time had come to end joint category races, to avoid allegations of unfairness between single and double-leg amputee runners. Speaking after securing a place in the T44 100m final in London, he told reporters: “All I know is that there is a maximum height (for running blades).
“I think we need to come together and re-evaluate the formula and have an idea of the exact height for an athlete to run in or maybe have a variation in height of 1cm, so you know you’re racing the same athlete in all competitions.” Singleton, a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intern, added: “As time changes science changes too, so we just have to make sure that it is fair to all competitors. “Right now it’s like (comparing) apples to oranges not apples to apples.” Singleton is a T44 single-leg amputee athlete, as is world record holder Jonnie Peacock of Britain, who also made the final. Pistorius and new Paralympic 200m champion Alan Oliveira of Brazil are double-leg amputees.
Stage set for ‘Battle of the Blade Runners’
