Athletics: Pistorius shows his class

Oscar Pistorius. Photo /Getty Images

Oscar Pistorius stamped his class on the IPC World Athletics Championships in Christchurch this morning with an emphatic win in the T44 200m final.

Running into a fresh breeze for the first 40m, the athlete known at "Blade Runner" used his power on the bend to dominate the world-class field.

Jerome Singleton, the South African's main rival, made a lightning start to take an early lead, but was caught on the turn and Pistorius powered away to win by nearly a second in 21.80, just 0.22secs outside his world record. Fellow South African Arnu Fourie took more than half a second off his previous best time to run to run 22.82 for third.

"I'm extremely happy with that performance," Pistorius said. "It is probably the strongest 200m field ever assembled and for this time of the year it is a pretty good time."

Pistorius is guarded about his chances tomorrow in the 100m where he will come up against several specialists over the distance. Singleton, who he beat by only 0.03secs at the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008, will provide his strongest opposition.

Great Britain increased their gold medal tally to four through Richard Whitehead who set a new Championship record in winning the men's 200m T42 in 25.88. France's Clavel Kayitare (26.54) took silver and Japan's Atsushi Yamamoto (26.92) the bronze.

In the third 200m race on the third morning of competition Antonis Aresti (22.25) of Cyprus won gold in the T46 Final. T45 athlete Yohansson Nascimento of Brazil set a new world record of 22.35 in taking silver. Bronze went to Australia's Simon Patmore (22.43).

In the men's 100m T13 Russia's Alexey Labzin took advantage of the absence of world record holder Jason Smyth, missing through injury, to win gold in 11.09. South Africa's Ndodomzi Jonathan Ntutu took silver in 11.11 and Greece's Ioannis Protos the bronze in 11.25.

World record holder Wa Wai So (12.17) set a new Championship record in winning gold in the Men's 100m T36. Great Britain's Benjamin Rushgrove (12.25) took silver and Ukraine's Roman Pavlyk (12.26) the bronze.

Another Championship record fell in the Men's 1,500m T46 after Algeria's Samir Nouioua finished in 3:57.37 to take gold. Silver went to Ethiopa's Wondiye Fikre Indelbu (3:58.75) and bronze Kenya's Abraham Tarbei (3:58.91).

In the final of Women's 4x100m Relay F35-38 Ukraine took gold in a new World record time of 55.07. Russia (55.70) took silver and Great Britain (58.33) bronze.

In the field events Russia's Alexy Kuznetsov (F54) set a new world record of 29.44m/999points in winning the men's javelin F54/55/56. Silver went to Serbia's Drazenko Mitrovic (26.45m/958 points) whilst Mexico's Luis Alberto Zepeda Felix (25.27m/936 points) claimed bronze.

Latvia's Aigars Apinis (10.03m/1001 points) also set a new world record on his way to gold in the men's shot put. Mexico's Mauro Maximo De Jesus (8.31m/931 points) took silver and Ales Kisy (8.25m/931 points) of the Czech Republic the bronze.

Greek athlete Paschalis Stathelakos was the final world record breaker of the morning session in the men's discus F40. In a hotly contested final Stathelakos threw 40.92m putting him ahead of the previous world record holder Jonathan de Souza Santos (39.31m) of Brazil. Bronze went to USA's Scott Danberg (36.18m).

Gold in the women's long jump F20 went to Croatia's Mikela Ristoski (5.10m) whilst Poland's Karolina Kucharczyk (5.00m) and Krestina Zhukova (4.80m) took silver and bronze respectively.

After winning the discus yesterday Spain's David Casinos (12.93m) claimed his second gold of the Championships in the men's shot put F11. Silver went to Ukraine's Vasyl Lishchynskyi (12.81m) and bronze Columbia's Edwin Rodriguez Gonzalez (10.72m).

There were five world and four championship records broken on the third morning to bring the overall total to 23 world records and 43 championships records during the event.

There are no New Zealanders competing today, but three will be in action tomorrow. Wellington's Kate Horan lines up in the 100m T44 heats in the morning and the 200m final in the early evening, while Auckland's Joe Flavell contests the F42 shot put and runner Matthew Lack (Opotiki) competes in the 1500m heats.

- NZPA