By Jason Humphries
DURBAN, March 27 (Reuters) – Double amputee Oscar Pistorius
says he is confident of qualifying to run the 400 metres at the
London Olympic Games.
“I’ve never been much of an optimist; I’m a realist and I’m
realistic in knowing what I have to do and I’m confident in
knowing that I can achieve that,” the South African told
reporters on Tuesday.
“In athletics it is not about working hard and achieving a
goal, it’s about working hard every single day and we’ve still
got 122 days until the Games and every day has been planned and
calculated.”
Pistorius, who uses carbon fibre prosthetic running blades,
ran a 45.20-second 400 metre race on March 17 in South Africa to
dip under the qualification time of 45.30. However, he still
needs to run the qualifying time in an international meeting
before he will be considered for South Africa’s Olympic team.
Last year, Pistorius became the first amputee to compete at
the athletics world championships when he ran in Daegu, South
Korea, though he failed to qualify for the 400 final.
If he qualifies for London, he would be the first amputee
athlete to compete at the Olympics.
“It’s nice being able to run the times, or close to the
times, that you need for the 400m now but there is a long season
ahead of us still,” he said.
“Hopefully I will start the European season off with the
same confidence that I have now, and between now and then get
some proper training done.”
Continued…
