Athletics: American puts heat on 'Blade Runner'

Oscar Pistorius. Photo / John McCombe

American Jerome Singleton, in getting within 0.02 seconds of "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius in yesterday's 100m F44 heats, has set up a virtual match race today at the IPC Athletic World Championships in Christchurch.

South African Pistorius defeated Singleton by 0.03sec at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008 and the American said he had improved dramatically since then.

"He [Pistorius] had better be ready [today] because I just cruised the last 50m," Singleton said at the conclusion of the race.

Pistorius was somewhat more circumspect about yesterday's race, acknowledging the American's explosive start.

"I did not make a good start but got into my stride very quickly. It's going to be a great race," he said.

Pistorius recorded a time of 11.33sec in winning his heat, but knows he will have to go much quicker today.

Meanwhile, American Tatyana McFadden was the individual star of the day with two gold medals. In the women's 800m T54 final, the silver medallist at the Beijing Paralympics defeated China's Wenjun Liu and Canada's Diane Roy in a new championship time of 1 min 51.10sec.

In the afternoon, she was just as dominant in the 200m, again defeating Liu in a time of 29.33sec. Switzerland's Manuela Schaer was third.

Brazil, with two gold medals and a world record in the first 40 minutes of competition, also had a grand opening to the day.

Odair Santos led all the way in the T11 1500m and despite a buffeting wind eclipsed the world record by half a second in winning in 4:04.70.

Brazil took out the quinella in the women's 100m T 11 event with world record holder Terezinha Guilhermina winning gold from Jerusa Geber Santos in 12.18sec, just outside the world mark she set on Monday.

In total, 29 world records and 85 championship records have been set over the four days.

- NZPA