PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, April 14 (Reuters) – Oscar
Pistorius’ bid to be the first amputee competing on the track at
the Olympic Games suffered a setback when he came seventh in the
400 metres final at the South African championship on Saturday.
Pistorius, who uses carbon fibre prosthetic running blades,
finished in 47.28 seconds behind Lebogang Moeng who won in
45.47.
Pistorius, whose time was short of his season best 45.20,
never looked in contention after starting slowly and battled to
cope with the searing pace set by Moeng on a hot and breezy day.
The 25-year-old Pistorius, running in lane two, seemed to
struggle over the last 100 metres and after the race he said he
had felt fatigued.
“It was fine until the 300 then I just felt tired,” he told
Reuters.
“I felt at that point I was second coming into the corner
and then I felt like I was at the verge of pushing it into the
red. I didn’t see the point of really doing that,” he added.
Pistorius shrugged off suggestions the race was a stumbling
block to his Olympic qualification.
“It’s not a train-smash at all. I’m not overjoyed but I’m
not prepared to get injured now for a title that doesn’t really
mean much,” he added.
Pistorius beat the Olympic qualifying time of 45.30 in
Pretoria last month but he must repeat that performance in an
international meeting before June 30 to make the team for the
London Games which start in July this year.
(Writing by Jason Humphries in Durban; Editing by Ken
Ferris)
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